We have been here before with Major League Baseball and we are at it again. On Tuesday, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred made the announcement that the MLB regular season for 2022 would not start on time because the owners could not come to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement with the Major League Baseball Players’ Association. According to Mike Axisa of CBS Sports, the first two series of the 2022 MLB regular season would be cancelled, and the season would be reduced from 162 games to 156 games. That is so far. Players meanwhile will not be paid for cancelled games.
Conflict between Manfred and the MLBPA is nothing new. There were conflicts relating to economics prior to the 2020 MLB regular season as well.
Before we go into the details regarding the impasse, one must realize that this is an “owner-initiated lockout.” Back in 1994, when Major League Baseball ended up cancelling its season, the players went on strike. They rejected a salary cap, and when the players voted to return to work for the 1995 regular season, there was still no salary cap in place. The Montreal Expos were hurt the most by the 1994 strike, They were the best team in the National League in 1994, and possibly the best team in Major League Baseball. They were unable to keep the core of their team from the 1994 season, and lost out on their best chance in franchise history in winning the World Series.
The issues in 2022 according to Anthony Franco and Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors are pertaining to the competitive balance tax thresholds, the minimum salary, and the amount of money that is being allocated to the bonus pool for pre-allocated players. To the average baseball fan, there is a feeling that greedy and wealthy owners are battling greedy and wealthy players.
What is also interesting is that Major League Baseball and the MLBPA have agreed to expand the number of postseason teams from 10 to 12 teams so far in negotiations even though the majority of baseball fans oppose an expanded playoff format. We are assuming that there will be six teams from each league that will make the playoffs. How the playoff format will look like is anyone’s guess at this point. Once again a Canadian team was negatively impacted. Here, the Toronto Blue Jays would have made the postseason if the 2022 MLB playoff format was instituted in 2021. Toronto finished the 2021 season at 91 wins and 71 losses, one game back of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.
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