The key now is the details. The old adage, the devil is in the details applies now more than ever. The idea of two contraction slots with more than two candidates provides baseball with the perceived leverage necessary in markets such as Minnesota, Montreal and Miami while allowing various scenarios to unfold concerning buyouts, transfers and actual contraction.

The owners' vote reflected a need to try to get back to basics and to stabilize the economics of the sport. Also, while the payments to contracting owners might be high in the short term, baseball believes that economic stability would drive the value of franchises higher in the long term.

There are still issues such as stadium leases, equity valuation, labor permission and community support not to mention the macro political issue of taking away franchises in a representative's or senator's backyard.

Now we will see the inevitable labor reaction, the effect on free agency and the response from the local target markets over the next couple of weeks.

In the end, though, this is the beginning of a long-term chess game whose outcome will be determined over the next year or so.