A little-known aspect of the CBA — the market-disqualification program — is helping force a select group of teams to operate more competitively than they did in the past.

The way the program works, revenue-sharing proceeds for teams in the 15 largest markets will decline by set percentages over the next three years, and disappear entirely by 2016.

Teams that previously received such funds — Toronto, Atlanta and Washington, among them — had little incentive to field better clubs. Why ...

The Mets want this resolved, or else they will issue a Bourn ultimatum.

Maybe the New York Mets can pull the whole thing off and sign free-agent center fielder Michael Bourn without losing their first-round pick.

David Prouty, executive counsel of the players’ union, told The Boston Globe that he is in talks with baseball regarding the Mets’ desire to keep their pick if they sign Bourn.

One source with knowledge of the discussions said the team stands a “decent” chance of winning its ...

Drafting and developing talented players already was a challenge. A team that yielded just one impact player out of each draft was doing about as well as could be expected.

But severe new spending limits restrict teams from being able to pay draftees what they once could, effectively restricting the number of elite draft picks they can sign. In addition, in contrast to previous years, while a team still must forfeit a draft pick to sign a compensation free agent, the team losing the free agent ...