MLBPA head expects lockout when current agreement expires

It seems like labor strife simply cannot escape baseball.

Just a few years removed from an eleventh-hour agreement that saved a full MLB season in 2022, the league and its players association are already posturing for another lockout once the current collective bargaining agreement expires in 2026.

According to a report by Barry M. Bloom in Sportico, MLBPA executive director Tony Clark said to media members on Friday, “Unless I am mistaken the league has come out and said there’s going to be a work stoppage.” Clark was referring to recent comments from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred who oddly called offseason lockouts “a positive” earlier this year since both sides are able to apply their leverage in a negotiation.

Clark expects negotiations to begin next spring, in line with historic standards. The league and union will have until December 1, 2026 to reach an agreement before risking another lockout.

As has long been the case, one of the key rifts between the two parties centers around a possible hard salary cap, something that the players association finds untenable, but the league believes could help competitive balance.

“I will say this,” Clark began. “There are ways of addressing the system that aren’t salary or cap related or require the restrictions of player salaries as the answer to every one of these questions.”

Of course, in the background of these labor negotiations will be MLB’s upcoming media rights negotiations in 2028. The league’s national media rights deals with Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery expire that year, and it’s safe to expect a major overhaul in how MLB divvies up its broadcast inventory. 2028 is also the year the league is eyeing to sell a package of local media rights to a major streaming company.

Then, there’s also the more immediate concern of selling the inventory that the league and ESPN recently opted out of. MLB will be taking Sunday Night Baseball, the Home Run Derby, and Wild Card round to market for next season, and the likelihood of a work stoppage could hypothetically raise concern among potential buyers.

It’s still quite a ways off to be worried about a lockout, and these things generally have a way of working themselves out; there’s simply too much money at stake. But MLB’s labor negotiations will certainly be something to monitor in the context of its very uncertain media future.