Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred appeared in the WFAN on SNY studio for Thursday’s edition of The Carton Show with Craig Carton and Chris McMonigle. The interview covered a variety of topics, including the possibility of a work stoppage ahead of the 2027 MLB season.
The collective bargaining agreement expires on Dec. 1, 2026, and a lockout has been viewed as very possible for many reasons, with a potential hard salary cap, and adjustments to the revenue-sharing model, pre-arbitration, and arbitration systems expected to be among the key issues of disagreement among the owners and players. And with a regional sports network landscape that continues to get messier and messier.
“People that cover the sport seem like it’s a fait accompli; we get one more year of baseball, and then we’re all in trouble, right?” Carton said to Manfred. “There’s going to be a stoppage, whatever you want to call it, or a strike, a lockout… Do you think that is a reality, and do you think you guys can get to the table enough times to maybe work something out, or even push back, extend the CBA while negotiating?”
“I do think there has been a rush to negativity by a lot of the media that covers our sport”
Rob Manfred talks about the possibility of a lockout with @craigcartonlive and @CMacWFAN: pic.twitter.com/TgacO4o6ac
— SNY (@SNYtv) January 8, 2026
“I do think there has been a rush to negativity by a lot of the media that covers our sport,” Manfred said.
“Well, the last one was pretty ugly,” McMonigle interjected. “And it went pretty long. And there was multiple times where we thought we were missing games.”
McMonigle is referring to the last MLB lockout, which lasted 99 days before ending on March 10, 2022, with the signing of a new five-year CBA agreement.
“Look, here’s the thing,” Manfred continued. “I came inside at baseball in 1998. We have always played, through five or six rounds of bargaining, we have always played 162 games. Okay? All I can tell you is that when I came, my goal was to make sure that every time we bargained, we played 162, and that’s my goal this time around.”
“We haven’t even started the process,” Manfred explained. “And candid conversation about we see things that need to be addressed, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to make this proposal or that proposal. I think we have to wait and see how things unfold at the table. We’ve got lots and lots of time to work on it. And the most important thing for fans is it’s certainly my goal to make sure that we play 162 games next year.”
The media’s “negativity’ on this subject has simply been about seeing obvious issues and disagreements surrounding the players and owners, and connecting the dots on how such a labor battle tends to go. We just saw this last time around, as McMonigle alluded to. It’s unlikely to be calmly and quickly resolved.
But Manfred sounds confident that MLB will still find a way to have a 162-game season in 2027, and his comments will at least add more pressure to make sure that happens.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.