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The 2021–22 Major League Baseball lockout was the ninth
work stoppage Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became common during the I ...
in
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...
(MLB) history. It began at 12:01 a.m.  EST on December 2, 2021, after MLB owners voted unanimously to enact a lockout upon the expiration of the 2016
collective bargaining agreement A collective agreement, collective labour agreement (CLA) or collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is a written contract negotiated through collective bargaining for employees by one or more trade unions with the management of a company (or with an ...
(CBA) between the league and the
Major League Baseball Players Association The Major League Baseball Players Association (or MLBPA) is the union representing all current Major League Baseball players. All players, managers, coaches, and athletic trainers who hold or have held a signed contract with a Major League c ...
(MLBPA). It ended on March 10, 2022, with the signing of a new agreement. Issues raised between the league and union involved compensation for young players and limitations on tanking to receive higher selections in the MLB draft. On March 1, 2022, following over a week of daily negotiations between the two sides, and three months of on and off negotiations, MLB cancelled the first two series of the regular season. MLB and the MLBPA reached an agreement on a new five-year CBA on March 10. The new CBA salvaged the full 162-game 2022 season by delaying
Opening Day Opening Day is the day on which professional baseball leagues begin their regular season. For Major League Baseball (MLB) and most of the American minor leagues, this day typically falls during the first week of April, although in recent years ...
from March 31 to April 7, with originally cancelled games to be made up during the season. The 2021–22 lockout was the first MLB work stoppage since the 1994–95 strike and the first lockout of the players since 1990. This was the second interruption of regular season play in three seasons, with the 2020 season having been delayed and shortened in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.


Background

Collective bargaining agreement A collective agreement, collective labour agreement (CLA) or collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is a written contract negotiated through collective bargaining for employees by one or more trade unions with the management of a company (or with an ...
s (CBAs) between
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...
(MLB) and the
Major League Baseball Players Association The Major League Baseball Players Association (or MLBPA) is the union representing all current Major League Baseball players. All players, managers, coaches, and athletic trainers who hold or have held a signed contract with a Major League c ...
(MLBPA), the labor union, business, and charitable foundation of MLB players, are typically ratified on a five-year basis, with the most recent CBA ratified on December1, 2016. MLB and the Players Association operated under the terms of the CBA until 11:59p.m. EST on December 1, 2021. The CBA affects all of the economic aspects of an MLB season, including the length of the season, the ''
per diem ''Per diem'' (Latin for "per day" or "for each day") or daily allowance is a specific amount of money that an organization gives an individual, typically an employee, per day to cover living expenses when travelling on the employer's business. A '' ...
'' that players may receive on a road trip, and the semantics of both free agency and salary arbitration. The most recent prior MLB work stoppage was a strike that lasted from 1994 to 1995 and resulted in the cancellation of the 1994 World Series. The last time the owners had initiated a lockout of the players was 1990. The most recent prior dispute between MLB and the players' union was in , as players and teams debated how to restructure a season affected by the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
.


Player demands

In a November meeting, the MLBPA drafted a proposal for the upcoming CBA with a number of demands that would expand player control over the terms of their contract, particularly for younger players, who are under control of the team that drafts them for the first six years of their professional baseball career. Of particular concern to the players' union was the ongoing trend of tanking, in which teams trade or release productive players and become relatively inactive in free agency in the hopes that they will finish with a losing season and receive higher compensation in future MLB drafts. The union has argued that tanking reduces competitive integrity within MLB and incentivizes teams with no intention of winning games. MLBPA executive director Tony Clark also voiced a desire to create new systems that would increase compensation for talented young players, and the union vocally disapproved of implementing a
salary cap In professional sports, a salary cap (or wage cap) is an agreement or rule that places a limit on the amount of money that a team can spend on players' salaries. It exists as a per-player limit or a total limit for the team's roster, or both. Sever ...
.


Owners' proposal

MLB's first proposal for a 2021 CBA was aimed at establishing narrower ranges for each team's combined salary, with a hard minimum of US$100million per team and an incremental
luxury tax A luxury tax is a tax on luxury goods: products not considered essential. A luxury tax may be modeled after a sales tax or VAT, charged as a percentage on all items of particular classes, except that it mainly directly affects the wealthy bec ...
beginning at $180million. As negotiations continued, owners made three separate proposals to the players' union, all of which were rejected, and which contained a number of concessions to player demands. These included eliminating the requirement for teams to lose a draft pick when signing a free agent who rejected their qualifying offer; a draft lottery modeled after that of the
National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...
; a universal
designated hitter The designated hitter (DH) is a baseball player who bats in place of another position player, most commonly the pitcher. The position is authorized by Major League Baseball Rule 5.11. It was adopted by the American League in 1973 and later by th ...
; and increases to both the player minimum salary and the
competitive balance tax Major League Baseball (MLB) has a luxury tax called the "Competitive Balance Tax" (CBT). In place of a salary cap, the competitive balance tax regulates the total sum of money a given team can spend on their roster. Salary caps are common across pr ...
threshold. MLB was also seeking an expanded postseason for the , which would allow 12 of the league's 30 teams to reach the playoffs, as opposed to the previous 10-team playoff field that was introduced in 2012.


Negotiations


Pre-lockout

Many MLB teams, fearing the freeze in contract signings that would arise in a lockout, scrambled to sign prominent free agents at the end of November. More than $1.9billion in new contracts were signed during the free agency period before the lockout, including a one-day record of $1.4billion in contracts signed on December1. At 10:00a.m. CST on November 30, 2021, one day before the CBA was set to expire, the MLBPA made its economic proposal to MLB at the
Four Seasons The Four Seasons, originally referring to the traditional seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter (typical of a temperate climate), may refer to: Music * ''The Four Seasons'' (Vivaldi), a 1725 set of four violin concertos by Antonio Viv ...
hotel in
Irving, Texas Irving is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. Located in Dallas County, it is also an inner ring suburb of Dallas. The city of Irving is part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. According to a 2019 estimate from the United States Census Bur ...
. MLB owners and negotiators then discussed the proposal independently, and both sides reconvened at 3:00p.m. for additional negotiations. Talks resumed for seven minutes on the afternoon of December 1 before ending abruptly. The union rejected the league's proposal to drop certain demands, including alterations to the free agency process. Negotiations came to a halt when league representatives Dan Halem and
Richard Monfort Charles K. Monfort (born October 30, 1959) and Richard L. Monfort (born April 27, 1954) are the primary owners of the Colorado Rockies Major League Baseball team. Both grew up in Greeley, Colorado and are sons to Kenneth Monfort; previous owner of ...
left the hotel. That evening, MLB owners voted unanimously to enact a lockout upon the expiration of the 2016 CBA.


December

The lockout officially began at 12:01a.m.EST on December 2, 2021, announced via a press release from Rob Manfred, the
Commissioner of Baseball The Commissioner of Baseball is the chief executive officer of Major League Baseball (MLB) and the associated Minor League Baseball (MiLB) – a constellation of leagues and clubs known as "organized baseball". Under the direction of the Commiss ...
. It instituted a transaction freeze, including the postponement of the major league portion of the Rule 5 draft. It was the first year since 1920 to not have a major league phase of the Rule 5 draft, though the minor league phase went ahead as scheduled. As to not use their likenesses for commercial purposes absent a CBA, all official MLB properties removed imagery of active players, including player
headshots A head shot or headshot is a modern (usually digital) portrait in which the focus is on the person. The term is applied usually for professional profile images on social media, images used on online dating profiles, the 'about us page' of a cor ...
, from their content upon its expiration. MLB.com (which had not yet launched at the time of the last lockout) was primarily publishing retrospective-based articles, while MLB Network eventually suspended all regular offseason studio programming in favor of only carrying documentaries and classic game broadcasts. As a show of solidarity, some players changed their avatars on social media accounts to the generic silhouette image being used on MLB.com.


January

The first meeting between the league and the players' union occurred over Zoom on January 13, 2022. The league offered a proposal which included pay increases for veteran players, performance bonuses, and several other changes on issues of tanking, expanding the playoff field, and use of a universal designated hitter. The MLBPA was unimpressed with the proposal, which explicitly did not address the issue of free agency eligibility and which prevented any player with fewer than three years of major league play from salary arbitration; previously, a select number of players who had spent two years in the league were eligible for arbitration. The parties met again on January 24. The MLBPA rejected most of the terms put forth by the league during the January 13 meeting. The parties met for a second consecutive day on January 25. The league increased its proposed minimum salary to $615,000.


February

The parties met for a fourth time on February 1. In a counter offer, the players association lowered the bonus pool money that would be awarded to exceptional pre-arbitration performers from $105 million to $100 million. On February 3, the league requested a federal mediator to help resolve the lockout. The league also said they would not make a counter offer to the players association. One day later, the MLBPA rejected the league's request for a federal mediator. On February 10, Manfred held a press conference, where he said that the league had "agreed" both to the implementation of a universal designated hitter and the elimination of draft-pick compensation for free agents who reject qualifying offers. On February 18, the league announced that it had cancelled all spring training games through March 4. MLB told the players' union on February 20 that the last day to come to an agreement and have the season start on time would be February 28 and that the games missed would not be made up.


Week of February 21

Beginning on February 21, in the final week before the league's self imposed deadline, the two sides began meeting every day in an attempt to start the regular season on time. During the February 23 meeting, the league proposed a bump in the leaguewide minimum salary to $640,000 in the upcoming season. The minimum salary would raise by $10,000 per season for the rest of the CBA. On February 25, the league announced they had cancelled all spring training games through March 7. The February 25 meeting focused on the format for the lottery determining the draft order. During the February 26 meeting, the union made a proposal that addressed key monetary issues. Monetary issues were further discussed during the February 27 meeting. While there were fewer formal proposals in this meeting, both sides felt it was productive. On February 28, the two sides held a marathon negotiating session that continued until the early hours of March 1. The two sides agreed to a 12-team postseason, something that was previously thought to be a major point of strife. While the session did not end in an agreement between the two sides, both sides were reportedly optimistic that an agreement could be reached soon thereafter. The league decided to move its self-imposed deadline for cancelling regular season games to 5p.m.EST on March 1. Despite reports that the two sides were optimistic in coming to an agreement, they struggled to come to one during the March 1 meeting. During the negotiations, the league released statements to the press claiming that the union’s tone had changed. The union, and several players on social media denied their tone had changed. The major disputes between the two parties centered around the luxury-tax thresholds, pre-arbitration bonus pool, and the minimum salary. The league made its "best and final offer" prior to the 5p.m. deadline. The players were extremely disappointed with the offer, with one union official saying "We are done. This was always
he league’s He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
plan." The union unanimously rejected the offer. The two sides then ended their negotiations. In a press conference immediately thereafter, commissioner Rob Manfred officially announced that the first two series of the regular season had been cancelled.


March

The two sides met again for an informal meeting on March 3. Unlike previous meetings, only two members of each side were in attendance, including MLB's Dan Halem and the MLBPA's Bruce Meyer. According to reports, no official proposals were made as the meeting was intended to map out further negotiations. On March 4, Major League Baseball cancelled all spring training games through March 17. The two sides met for a more formal meeting on March 6. The union did not change their proposals for the luxury tax thresholds, something that was reportedly a major disagreement between the two sides.


Week of March 7

The lead negotiators for both sides met for another informal meeting on March 7. The two sides met again formally on March 8. The league proposed an increase on the base luxury tax threshold to $230 million in 2022, rising to $242 million in 2026. The league also proposed a $50 million pre-arbitration bonus pool with no increases, $30 million short of the player association's request for $80 million with a $5 million increase per year. The league added several new facets to the proposal, including a third surcharge to the luxury tax, reportedly in response to
New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major leagu ...
owner Steve Cohen's willingness to spend record-setting amounts on his team's payroll. Cohen reportedly was fine with the new surcharge if "MLB thought it was for the greater good." Other aspects of the new offer included a maximum of five
options Option or Options may refer to: Computing *Option key, a key on Apple computer keyboards *Option type, a polymorphic data type in programming languages * Command-line option, an optional parameter to a command *OPTIONS, an HTTP request method ...
before a player is put on waivers. The league also proposed that "small market" teams could only pick in the draft lottery for two consecutive years before being downgraded to the 10th overall pick, while "big market" teams could only do so for one year. The threshold to qualify as a "small market" or "big market" team was not initially defined to the public. Under MLB's proposal, the top two vote-getters for each league's Rookie of the Year Award would receive a full year of service time. Negotiations continued into the early morning of March 9. The players association “requested to speak to its board again early tomorrow before coming back with a proposal.” The league moved its deadline for a new collective bargaining agreement to be in place to conduct a 162-game season to March 9. The two sides continued negotiations on March 9 where an international draft became a focal point in negotiations. The league also proposed a slot value of $5.5 million for the first overall draft pick, which was slightly up from their last proposal. In the union's counter proposal, its proposed CBT thresholds dropped further. After previously seeking year-to-year thresholds of $238 million, $244 million, $250 million, $256 million and $263 million, the March 9 proposal from the union offered thresholds of $232 million, $235 million, $240 million, $245 million, and $250 million. The union also proposed a $710,000 league minimum in 2022, $10,000 away from the league’s proposed $700,000 figure. Despite the league and the union closing the gap on these core economics issues, the international draft was a major disagreement. The league would not give a full counter to the union until they picked one of those choices, and set a deadline for 6p.m.EST for a decision to be made. When the union declined all three offers, the league postponed games once again, this time until April 14. Despite this, negotiations between the two sides on the international draft continued into the early morning hours of March 10. While no deal was made, the two sides did announce they would meet again later in the day. Negotiations continued formally on March 10. The two sides reached an agreement regarding the international draft, something that halted negotiations a day prior. Following this agreement, the league made a full counter-proposal which saw its proposed pre-arbitration bonus pool rise from $40 million to $50 million. The players' union voted 26-12 to accept the league's proposal. During a meeting at 6:00p.m.EST, MLB team owners voted unanimously to ratify the new collective bargaining agreement. The lockout was officially lifted one hour later at 7:00p.m.EST.


Aftermath

The lockout was officially lifted at 7:00p.m. EST, on Thursday, March 10, restoring teams' abilities to be in contact with players and effectively reopening free agency. At the time of the lockout's lifting, there were approximately 250 free agents remaining unsigned, including notable players such as Carlos Correa,
Freddie Freeman Frederick Charles Freeman (born September 12, 1989) is an American-Canadian professional baseball first baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). Previously, Freeman played for the Atlanta Braves for 12 seasons. He mad ...
, and
Clayton Kershaw Clayton Edward Kershaw (born March 19, 1988) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB) . He has played for the Dodgers for the entirety of his MLB career. A left-handed starting pi ...
. As the lockout was lifted, the likeness of active players was reinstated on official MLB websites and social media accounts after a three-month hiatus with only content relating to retired players, minor leaguers, and miscellaneous topics. Players began to arrive at Cactus League and
Grapefruit League Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition game An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match ...
training sites on March 11, two days before the mandatory reporting date and 27 days before the regular season's Opening Day on April 7. The first free agent to be signed following the lockout was Drew VerHagen by the St. Louis Cardinals on March 11. The first eight-figure contract agreed upon post-lockout was Carlos Rodón with the
San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...
for $44 million over two years.


Reactions


Players

Several players spoke out about the lockout, mostly in alignment with the MLBPA and often in criticism of MLB. Upon the instatement of the lockout, many players took to social media to share their reactions,
Jake Diekman Jacob Tanner Diekman (born January 21, 1987), is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Chicago White Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Philadelphia Phillies, Texas Rangers, Arizona Diamondbac ...
and
Andrew McCutchen Andrew Stefan McCutchen (born October 10, 1986) is an American professional baseball outfielder who is a free agent. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, San Francisco Giants, New York Yankees, Philadelphia P ...
sharing memes about the situation. Several players, including Trevor Williams, changed their Twitter avatars to a blank silhouette of a player used on MLB.com player profiles due to the lockout. Marcus Stroman criticized Rob Manfred after several failed negotiations in early February, calling him "Manclown" and saying that he needed to "stop ruining baseball." Following the cancellation of regular season games after more failed negotiations in late February, Stroman criticized Manfred again, taking to Twitter to call for his firing and expressing his grievances with MLB's marketing of players.
Mike Trout Michael Nelson Trout (born August 7, 1991) is an American professional baseball center fielder for the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB). Trout is a ten-time MLB All-Star, three-time American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) ...
spoke out on the cancellations, criticizing the league's perceived unwillingness to compromise and saying that a fair CBA needed to be achieved despite his desire to play games.


Media

Many members of baseball media criticized the lockout, both through social media and opinion articles. ESPN's
Jeff Passan Jeffrey Scott Passan (born September 21, 1980) is an American baseball columnist with ESPN and author of ''New York Times'' Best Seller ''The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports''. He is also co-author ...
tweeted that "If you went and got the next 1,200 best players in the world, the product would suffer greatly. If you handed MLB teams over to any 30 competent businesspeople, the sport would not suffer. Actually, it might improve."
Tyler Kepner John Tyler Kepner (born 1975) is an American author and sports journalist who is currently a senior baseball writer for The Athletic, after spending more than 23 years writing baseball for ''The New York Times''. He is known for authoring the book ...
of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' described MLB's final February offer as "an offer that was engineered to be rejected."
Grant Brisbee Grant Brisbee (born October 31, 1977) is an American sports writer and editor. He is the founder of McCovey Chronicles, a San Francisco Giants-focused site, and served as its lead writer from 2005 until 2018. From 2011–19, he served as a nation ...
of ''
The Athletic ''The Athletic'' is a subscription-based sports website that provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom. ''The Athletic'' also covers national stories from top professional and college sports ...
'' criticized the owners and the dialogue surrounding the lockout, declaring that there was "no both-sidesing this one."


Fans

In a poll conducted by the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
'' among adults who considered themselves baseball fans, 6 in 10 respondents said that the lockout was making them lose interest in the 2022 MLB season. A
Morning Consult Morning Consult is a global decision intelligence company established in 2014. It was named one of the fastest growing technology companies in North America by Deloitte in both 2018 and 2019 and was valued at more than one billion dollars in Jun ...
poll released on March 8 found that among self-identified MLB fans, 45% blamed team owners for the stalemate in negotiations while 21% blamed the players and 34% had no opinion. The survey found a higher percentage of blame for the owners than a 2020 Morning Consult poll that was taken when the league was attempting to negotiate a shortened season in response to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
. Specific aspects of MLB and MLBPA proposals were met with mixed reactions by fans. The prospect of larger bases was met with criticism by some fans while others praised the idea for its potential to reduce player injuries from sliding or tripping.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2021-2022 Major League Baseball lockout Major League Baseball labor disputes Major League Baseball lockout, 2021 Major League Baseball lockout, 2021 Lockout Lockout