With the league championship series set to begin in Milwaukee on Sunday and St. Petersburg, Fla. on Monday, Major League Baseball is working behind the scenes to prepare teams for an off-season shutdown.
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Baseball → set → shutdown
A lockout of the players when the collective agreement expires at 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 1 has long been seen as inevitable.
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agreement → expire → Dec.
This week, MLB informed teams of the do’s and don’ts once the game is shut down.
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game → inform → do
A memo from deputy commissioner Dan Halem to the owners was leaked to Evan Drellich of the Athletic and contains the plan starting Dec. 2.
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memo → leak → plan
Halem tried to put a pretty face on it, no doubt knowing it would be made public.
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it → try → it
“Our commitment has been and remains to exhaust every realistic option to achieve our goal of reaching an agreement with the Players’ Association,” reads the memo, as reported by the Athletic.
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memo → remain → Athletic
“However, clubs need to be prepared for the possibility that an agreement will not be reached by then and the clubs are left with no realistic alternative but to implement a lockout of major league players.
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clubs → need → players
Right, because heaven forbid they work under the terms of the current contract with no interruption of the off-season until a new deal is reached.
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deal → forbid → season
That seems like a realistic alternative, except that way the owners can’t pressure the players to accept the salary cap they want.
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they → seem → cap
Lately, MLB has been going on the offensive with ads on MLB Network and some game broadcasts (mostly in the United States) extolling the virtues of a cap, suggesting the majority of fans want it and that it would improve competitive balance in a sport where the big, bad, super-wealthy Los Angeles Dodgers have won the last two World Series.
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Dodgers → go → Series
Those Dodgers, with the highest payroll, are back in the NLCS having vanquished the Atlanta Braves, sixth on the spending list.
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Dodgers → vanquish → list
What MLB neglects to mention, of course, is that the New York Mets — with the second-highest payroll, more than 15 per cent higher than the New York Yankees at No. 3 — finished last in the NL East.
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Mets → neglect → East
The Blue Jays, with the fifth-highest payroll, also wound up in the basement.
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Jays → wind → basement
Don’t remind the owners, either, that the top-seeded Brewers and Rays had the 19th- and 28th-highest payrolls, respectively.
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Brewers → remind → payrolls
The Brewers just took out the San Diego Padres, ninth in spending, while the Rays dropped the wealthy Yankees.
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Rays → take → Yankees
In the ALCS, the Rays will face the Chicago White Sox (27th) or the Cleveland Guardians (29th), ensuring that a bottom-four payroll will make the World Series.
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payroll → face → Series
But high-payroll teams are ruining baseball.
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teams → ruin → baseball
There is going to be a lockout and even though no games would be cancelled until mid- to late March, if at all, there’s still plenty that can’t happen once the doors are shut.
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doors → be → March
Like the last lockout before the 2022 season, player photos and videos will be scrubbed from the MLB website, although team stores can still sell merchandise with their images.
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stores → scrub → images
Team officials, including trainers, won’t be allowed to contact or monitor players starting Dec. 2, which means any off-season workout or rehab plans have to be settled prior to the lockout.
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workout → include → lockout
However, attending a player’s wedding is fine as long as they don’t talk about work.
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they → attend → work
Of course, no trades or free-agent signings will be permitted as of that date.
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trades → permit → date
In 2021, more than $1.4 billion (U.S.) in free-agent contracts was handed out the day before that collective agreement expired, including the Jays signing pitchers Kevin Gausman and Yimi Garcia.
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Jays → hand → Gausman
The memo to owners was leaked Wednesday.
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memo → leak → owners
On Thursday, MLB revealed a new proposal to the players.
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MLB → reveal → players
The owners are offering to cut the regular season from 162 games to 154 (like it was before expansion in 1961) with Monday off every week for all but two or four teams.
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Monday → offer → teams
The reduction in games would not reduce player salaries.
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reduction → reduce → salaries
MLB is also proposing best-of-seven division series, instead of best-of-five, and a staggered start to the post-season that would eliminate most afternoon start times.
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that → propose → times
As well, higher-seeded teams could choose their opponent in the first two rounds, and there would be an off day before Games 5, 6 and 7 of the championship series, allowing a team’s ace to potentially make three starts.
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ace → seed → starts
If any of the proposed changes are approved they would go into effect for the 2029 season, after current broadcast agreements expire, allowing MLB to negotiate much more lucrative ones.
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MLB → propose → ones
The current deals, however, will be extended by a year if MLB loses more than 60 games to a labour dispute in 2027, which is a big carrot for the owners to get something done by mid-May.
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something → extend → May
That, more than anything else, might be the biggest reason to think there will be big-league baseball next year.
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That → think → anything
The Aporia
