MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement Lockout 2022

Every winter, professional baseball players normally fly into Florida in preparation for the next Major League Baseball season. Player meetings are held between representatives of the teams and their Minor League Baseball affiliates to help with networking, manage league business involving trades and transactions, as well as sharing ideas.

Though in 2020, these meetings were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. During that year, meetings were held virtually in response COVID-19 protocols. The next year, with some more relaxed protocols in place, the winter meetings had another obstacle that would cancel the meetings. The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) contract expired on December 1st, 2021. The previous contract was ratified was in 2016, the last time negotiations were made.

There should be much excitement to be made by both players and the organizations for the winter meetings that setup the new season. Here, we explore further into what effects delaying the season may have, and why the season will most likely be delayed.

Delaying Opening Day

Baseball fans across the nation celebrate Opening Day, typically in the beginning of April. A highly anticipated day, that ceremonially all clubs wash away the previous year and start the season equally with a clean winning and losing record.

Pitchers and Catchers reporting for Spring Training is typically the earliest sign that the new baseball season is upon us. Pitchers and Catchers usually report to their team facilities in the end of February. During the Pandemic season in 2020, the Spring Training season was reduced to 3 weeks. Once an agreement is made, there should be about a 2 week “offseason” period in which all the clubs are able to wrap up their offseason transactions and logistic situations, especially with international players.

So once a deal is made, there should be about a 5-week lead time minimum, before Opening Day kicks off the new season. A new deal will need to be made at the end of January, or early February to have a full-length Spring Training to prepare for the season. Currently, the Cactus League and the Grapefruit League are on schedule to begin Feb. 26th.

With Opening Day scheduled for March 31, technically the lockout could last until nearly the beginning of March with shortened Spring Training and offseason for the season to continue as scheduled, but it would be cutting it very close. If the season is delayed further into the schedule, let say for 2 weeks, then the season would pick up with whoever the team was meant to play 2 weeks into the season, with the first 2 weeks slate of games to be rescheduled later.

Delaying the season is not completely unheard of, as it has happened in the past – last year only 60 games were played in the regular season. To preserve a 100-game season, the first game would need to be played by around May 1st.

The All-Star Game, scheduled for July 19th will mark as a starting point for playing another 60ish game season. Obviously the further delayed the beginning of the season is after the All-Star Game, the more detrimental having a season at all would look. This hurts each team equally, however, the Mariners in particular, were looking forward to this offseason.

Unfinished Business

It’s hard to drum up excitement for the new season while player transactions have yet to be completed and are not allowed to be discussed.

Looking to end a 20-year playoff drought, Seattle had high hopes for the offseason, contrary to many of the years previously. This past offseason, the Mariners signed the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, Robbie Ray from the Toronto Blue Jays, to a five-year deal. With momentum for the offseason building, there was anticipation that another signing would be made in addition to Ray and second basemen Adam Frazier.

Kris Bryant or Trevor Story have been in discussion as top free agent signings. There is also much talk of signing the Japanese slugger Seiya Suziki.

Negotiation Proposals

There are a few key points that are being discussed between the MLB and MLBPA such as pay-for-play arbitration system. The MLB has offered to distribute pay from a pool of money to the top players in the category of WAR, if the players have certain amount of experience in the league. The disagreement comes with how much the pool of money is, as well as how experience in the league is counted.

The MLB has proposed raising the luxury-tax threshold to $220 million by 2026, while the MLBPA proposed raising the threshold to $245 million.

The MLB would also like to expand the postseason to 14 teams, and the MLBPA proposed expanding to 12 teams.

While the lockout doesn’t appear to be resolved immediately, there is progress being made since the first face-to-face meeting lasted 7 minutes, the session on Jan 24, 2022, lasted two hours.