Toronto Baseball Insider has no direct affiliation to the Toronto Blue Jays or MLB
MLBPA executive director confirms that there will be an MLB lockout
Major League Baseball Players Association executive director Tony Clark shocked the world this morning confirming that a lockout is expected to happen in the near future.
There has been a ton of rumors throughout the last year regarding a possible lockout during next season's collective bargaining agreement but this is the first time that it actually looks like a possibility.
MLBPA executive director Tony Clark confirms a lockout is very possible
The MLB is headed into negotiations after this season for a collective bargaining on a new agreement which is expected to result in a lockout, at least the player association believes so.
The Major League Baseball Players Association is fully expecting to be locked out by MLB during next year's collective bargaining on a new agreement. -Bloom
During a recent interview, Clark stated that he met with some players on the San Francisco Giants and the league has already informed players that there will be a work stoppage.
«Unless I am mistaken the league has come out and said there's going to be a work stoppage,» Tony Clark, the union's executive director, said Friday morning to a few members of the media after meeting with the San Francisco Giants players at Scottsdale Stadium. «So, I don't think I'm speaking out of school in that regard.» -Clark
For now it seems like the lockout is suppose to be similar to the one in 2021 which will be an off-season lockout but there is always a chance that it ends up pushing into the season as fans have seen in the past.
An offseason lockout, which occurred in 2021 during the negotiations that preceded the current five-year Basic Agreement, is preferable to losing games in season as baseball did during player strikes that tore apart the 1981 and 1994-95 seasons. Manfred compared it to «using a .22 [caliber firearm], as opposed to a shotgun or a nuclear weapon.» -Bloom
According to the interview, the lockout would have to do with a salary cap as the owners around the league, especially the less rich teams are pushing for a hard cap which the player's association would be against.
The key issue is again a hard salary cap. But Clark had this message to MLB labor negotiators: «No. We haven't agreed to that in 50, 60 years.» -Clark
| POLL | ||
MARS 1 | 3134 ANSWERS MLBPA executive director confirms that there will be an MLB lockout Will the MLB have a lockout next season? | ||
| Yes | 1951 | 62.3 % |
| No | 1183 | 37.7 % |
| List of polls | ||