The Big Lead

Rob Manfred all but guarantees an MLB lockout in 2026-27

By J.P. Hoornstra

Jul 11, 2023; Seattle, Washington, USA; MLB commissioner Rob Manfred talks to the media before the 2023 MLB All Star Game at T-Mobile Park.
Jul 11, 2023; Seattle, Washington, USA; MLB commissioner Rob Manfred talks to the media before the 2023 MLB All Star Game at T-Mobile Park. / Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images
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Any work stoppage, whether via players' strike or an owners' lockout, is perhaps the biggest black eye a professional sport can inflict on itself.

Maybe it hurts. Maybe it sends a message. In the eyes of fans, it just looks bad, interrupting the game they hold dear.

A work stoppage is arguably worse for players. They can't work.

The drawbacks of a work stoppage go without saying. The positives?

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, in a new interview with Evan Drellich of The Athletic, audaciously claimed a lockout is "in a bizarre way, actually a positive" for the sport.

Huh?

"There is leverage associated with an offseason lockout and the process of collective bargaining under the NLRA works based on leverage," Manfred told Drellich. "The great thing about offseason lockouts is the leverage that exists gets applied between the bargaining parties.”

Baseball's Collective Bargaining Agreement ends after the 2026 season. Manfred is gearing up for one last negotiation with the MLB Players' Association before he retires. He will not go down without a fight.

"Manfred said an offseason lockout, as there was in 2021-22, should be considered the new norm," Drellich writes.

Tony Clark, the head of the players' union, naturally challenged Manfred's logic. At least by praising the lockout as a force for good, Manfred effectively did Clark the favor of warning him two years in advance to save money for players and other non-union workers who will be impacted two years hence. (The MLBPA pledged $1 million to impacted workers in 2021.)

Given Manfred's stance, to root against a lockout at this point would seem naïve. Maybe the best way to change the prevailing sentiment among the owners for whom Manfred works is to change the owners.

In several markets, fans have reached that conclusion already.

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