MLB players accept owners’ offer, full season to be played

NEW YORK — Players have voted to accept Major League Baseball’s latest offer for a new labor deal, paving the way to end a 99-day lockout and salvage a 162-game regular season.

The union’s executive board approved the agreement in a 26-12 vote, pending ratification by all players, a person familiar with the balloting said, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because no announcement was authorized.

MLB sent the players an offer Thursday and gave them until noon Pacific time to accept in order to play a full season. The union announced the player vote around 12:25 p.m. PT. Owners had discussed the deal before MLB sent it to the players association.

The agreement will allow training camps to open this week in Florida and Arizona, more than three weeks after they were scheduled to on Feb. 16. Fans can start making plans to be at Fenway Park, Dodger Stadium and Camden Yards next month. Opening day is being planned for April 7, a little more than a week behind the original date on March 31.

Spring training games are expected to start March 18. It has yet to be announced if the second Big League Weekend, which is scheduled to feature two exhibition games between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies on March 18-19, will go on as planned.

The deal will also set off a rapid-fire round of free agency. Carlos Correa, Freddie Freeman and Las Vegan Kris Bryant are among 139 big leaguers still without a team, including some who might benefit from the adoption of a universal designated hitter.

The Aviators’ season has not been affected from the lockout, other than the Triple-A ballclub didn’t have access to players on the parent Oakland Athletics’ 40-man roster while the lockout in place. Their season begins April 5 against the Reno Aces at Las Vegas Ballpark.