Major League Baseball: What is a lockout and what do owners and players want?

Baseball has endured a work stoppage for the first time since the Players striked in 1994-95.

The deadline for the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) expired at 11.59pm on 1 December and two hours prior to this deadline, the owners voted unanimously to force a work stoppage on Thursday 2 December 2021.

While a strike would indicate it was the players who had decided against work, the MLB owners instigated a lockout - the players would be unable to work whether they wanted to or not.

The lockout instituted a transaction freeze as well as the postponement of the major league portion of the Rule 5 draft.

This would be the first year since 1920 that there would be no major league phase of the rule 5 draft - the minor league phase went ahead as scheduled however.

After several months of meetings, two sides held yet another negotiating session on Monday 28 February 2022 and Rob Manfred, the Commissioner of Baseball, appeared - more aggressively than before - to signal he wanted a deal and after progress was made, the league pushed back its deadline to 5pm ET (10pm GMT) on Monday 1 March 2022.

What are Collective Bargaining agreements?

Collective Bargaining agreements are deals made between the Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association, the labour union, business and charitable foundation of MLB players.

All players, managers, coaches and athletic trainers who hold or have held a signed contract with a Major League club are eligible for membership in the MLBPA.

They are reworked every five years with the most recent CBA ratified on 1 December 2016. The CBA affects all of the economic aspects of the MLB season which includes the length of the season, how much players receive on a road trip and the interpretations between free agency and salary arbitration.

What do the owners want?

Before the 2021 season, there was a push to expand the playoffs. The main benefitter of this would have been the teams who would receive 100% of TV revenue in the postseason. Players only receive a portion of the gate which is a considerably smaller amount than what the TV revenue produces.

As a compromise, the owners then offered a reduction to 154 games in the season and implementation of a universal designated hitter: two things that the players have long been awaiting.

However, these two offers were miniscule in comparison to what the owners would be receiving in revenue from their playoff expansion.

What do the players want?

The players seemed to vary in their requests.

Firstly, there has been a decreasing percentage of revenue going to the players and the MLB have used what SBNATION.com has referred to as ‘creative accounting’ in order to show why players are keeping an even share.

Players are wanting free agency to be available to anyone who has reached 29.5-years-old and if they’ve completed five years of play or players who have accrued six years of service at any age, whichever comes first.

The owners have continuously stated that this is a non-starter as they want to keep the six years to free agency and three years of arbitration process they have in place already.

Players have also expressed concern that expanding the field in terms of potential playoff expansion, will motivate the owners to spend less on their players as they know they can still benefit from the postseason TV revenue.

What has happened this week?

While there is still a huge amount of uncertainty, the latest 16 ½ hour marathon meeting which took place has brought definite progress to the table and a conceptual framework of a deal seems in the ether.

The sides are currently onboard for the union’s preferred postseason format of 12 teams, rather than the 14 the league had sought and the players are currently willing to drop their request for expanded arbitration.

The MLB have added new money to their offers on the competitive balance tax, minimum salary and pre-arbitration bonus pool.

Additionally, the MLB is also willing to keep the tax rates with the CBT at status quo.

The overall figures are still a way off from satisfying a majority of the players, but the most recent meetings have given fans reason to believe that an end is in sight for the MLB’s most recent lockout.

Historically, lockouts in baseball have not actually led to missed games and as Owners and players know how much there is to be lost, it is highly likely that there will be success with the CBA before it impacts the 2022 season.

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