Evan Drellich talks baseball's looming labor battle (Hour 2)
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What are the implications of the impending MLB lockout?
This hour is brought to you by Cars for Kids. I think the important distinction is that it would be a lockout. It wouldn't be the player's choice. It would be the ownership's choice. And hopefully it doesn't come to that because I think baseball has a ton of momentum. Baseball has been in a great place. The rules changes have worked. The games are faster. People are excited. You see attendance numbers growing. Some of the TV deals that have come in in the last couple of years are really great for the game. And so hopefully we continue that momentum and don't put the sport back. That's Ian Happ, who was the Cubs player representative for years. This is Rahimi Harrison-Grody on 104.3 The Score. And there's been some news regarding at least the likelihood of a lockout.
Bruce Meyer, who's acting as the... Head of the Players Association right now had the quote, The league has pretty much already said there's going to be a lockout. I think Rob Manfred more or less guaranteed it. That's what he said to the Detroit Free Press. So that said, we go to our hotline and we bring in the big guns.
How does Evan Drellich view the chances of a lockout happening?
Evan Drellick, the reporter for The Athletic, who has been covering Major League Baseball and the Players Association ongoing discussions in CBA. He is at Evan Drellick on X. Evan, thanks for joining us. Good morning. Good afternoon. Thanks for having me. It is. It is still. Yeah, for us, it's still morning. So you're correct. I think that's where I want to start. Evan is just with the concept of this is I think he's saying the loud part out loud. Bruce Meyer, because we all are under the impression that somehow this is going to get locked out next year. What did you think of those comments and just what you know in the background that you add to it? I am not a betting man. I don't encourage anybody to become a betting person.
Were I a betting person, I would be very confident that a lockout is going to happen. Now, the real question is whether there are missed games. Remember last time we had a lockout in December right when the CBA expired. That's what's going to happen again. The chances of the players and the owners having a deal in place by 11.59 p.m.
What factors could lead to missed games in the 2027 season?
Eastern on December 1st are incredibly low. So you're going to have a lockout, and then the question is, can they get a deal done so that they can play a full 162-game season? So it's not whether the sport gets shut down in the winter. I think that really is very likely. It's can they work something out in time to avoid missed games in 2027. I'm looking at this and I'm with you. There's going to be a lockout. I think there will be missed games because this driving force of we need a salary cap has really, in my mind, been the deciding factor on what happens next and whether or not baseball, the owners, the players can come to any kind of agreement. Do you see a path forward without a salary cap? There probably should be, but a lot of that just depends on what owners decide they want.
Rob Manford needs a three-quarters group to pass the CBA. So if he has eight owners standing there and saying, we need a cap, we need to take this longer, we need to wait, well, then probably everybody's going to wait. And the question of what is rational is a difficult one to parse. If the owner's got a salary cap, their franchise values across the sport instantly rise. There's big money attached to it. There's also big money attached to missing games. And I think last time, you know, the players had been angry for 10 years, service time, uh, tanking. The Cubs are certainly a part of that. There was a lot going on in baseball that had angered the players. And yet even through all the drama and what I've come to call leverage theater, um,
They found a way to play. And it seems to me, again, that the rational decision will be everybody's going to look around. All the agents, all the players, whether they're high-income players, low-income players, small market, big market owners, are going to really feel the pain if they miss games. And I think that's going to be the prevailing factor.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What are the implications of the impending MLB lockout?
0:01–1:02
2
How does Evan Drellich view the chances of a lockout happening?
1:02–2:05
3
What factors could lead to missed games in the 2027 season?
2:05–5:05
4
What is the significance of a salary cap in MLB negotiations?
5:05–6:52
5
How do owner dynamics impact the negotiation process?
6:52–9:43
6
What role does Rob Manfred play in the upcoming labor negotiations?
9:43–12:52
7
How do media rights deals affect MLB's financial landscape?
12:52–17:21
8
What concerns exist regarding player performance during spring training?
17:21–42:50
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