First Pitch: Day Fifty Four – Lockout

24 Jan 2022

If you’re looking for a great read on the current status of the MLB lockout, Evan Drellich has an article at The Athletic discussing how MLB owners are testing the players.

Drellich writes that the owners are going to wait until the last minute, testing the players and putting them in a position to be concerned about lost paychecks. The owners have yet to seriously negotiate, starting the lockout process immediately as a tactic, and as Drellich writes, submitting proposals that technically meet player concessions, but which don’t actually concede anything.

With the expected February 1st deadline approaching, I’m expecting we will get more news on the lockout this week, and more negotiations that will likely go nowhere.

My guess is still that MLB owners will hold firm and make the players decline last. This will allow them to paint the players as greedy when they announce that the season will be delayed. The MLB owners have an advantage in the current distribution of money in the game, so they’re negotiating from a strong point. If they offer something to the players, paired with a concession for the owners, it does nothing to tip the overall scales back toward the players. Only a deal that is sided more in favor of the players will set the balance closer to even, and you can bet that MLB owners will sacrifice games before making that happen.

In the end, MLB owners know from the last two years that they can shorten a season and still maintain their big moneymaker: The postseason. They’ll lose some money by sacrificing some early-season games, but that will be a small amount compared to what they’d give up to start the season on time.

I still don’t think this will end anytime soon.