The Current State of the 2021 MLB Lockout

At 11:59 PM last Wednesday, December 1st, the Collective Bargaining Agreement between Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association expired, and at 12:01 Thursday morning, the league informed players that it had locked them out. This officially began the game’s first work stoppage, or lockout, in more than 25 years. So what is the Collective Bargaining Agreement anyways, and why is it such a big deal? The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is a deal between the club owners and the players association that covers everything from how long the season will be, all the way to what kind of per diem players receive on the road. However, the CBA also covers a lot of important economics of the game such as free agency and salary arbitration. The last CBA was negotiated in 2016, and since a new agreement couldn’t be reached, the MLB has decided to halt all player activity as it relates to their teams. This means no contract between player and club can be signed or amended during this time. Furthermore, players cannot use any team facilities or have any contact with anyone in their club during this time. 

The question baseball fans everywhere are wondering is: “Will this lockout last all the way to the regular season and cancel games?” The short answer is, probably not. According to data collected by NBC Sports, out of the 9 total stoppages of play in the history of Major League Baseball, only three have resulted in a loss of games. The largest of these stoppages of play was the infamous strike of 1994, which lasted a total of 232 days and led to 938 games lost during the regular season. While the circumstances of this lockout are much different than the strike in 1994, we can’t fully count out the possibility of missed regular season games quite yet. 

Currently, Opening Day is slated for March 31st of next year, so there is still ample time for a deal to be made. With both players and owners feeling the pressure of financial instability post-covid, what it is going to inevitably happen is one side, either the players or owners, is going to have to budge. This means that ether the players are going to have to agree to get paid a bit less, or the owners are going to have to agree to pay their players more, along with numerous other things. I interviewed long-time baseball fan Nabil Schwarzwalder to get his thoughts on which side will budge first, “I think the owners will eventually give. I think they lost way too much money during covid and really don’t want a major PR nightmare on their hands.” 

At the end of the day, this lockout is about money. The MLBPA is pushing for larger contracts for younger players, as this is when they are in their prime. They are also pushing to abolish the longstanding practice of keeping players in the minor leagues for a couple extra weeks before bringing them up so that teams can pay them less. With owners not wanting to dish out any more money after taking a major hit financially last year due to covid, this lockout could remain in place for a couple more months. Many experts believe that this issue won’t be resolved until late January or early February, as at that point, the pressure from the looming upcoming season will be greater, and will most likely force a compromise. 

For fans of the game, this is the last thing they want to see happening in their beloved sport. Fans don’t care how this issue gets resolved, they just want it to be solved by Opening Day. While there is a lot of pressure from outside sources, however, the weight of this situation really relies on the club owners and the players to come to an agreement.