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Speaking of contracts, the contract between the MLB and the MLBPA expire soon. Let's see if they'll be a lockout or not.
www.espn.com

It's official: Everything you need to know about MLB's lockout

Will baseball's labor strife delay the 2022 season? We've got answers to all your questions after baseball's first work stoppage in 26 years.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

Welcome to the end of baseball ... for a while, at least.

At 11:59 p.m. ET, the collective bargaining agreement between Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association is set to expire. If a new one isn't in place by then, the owners are expected to lock out the players.

So what does that mean for the rest of the offseason? How long will it last? What are the sticking points in the negotiations? What's a lockout, anyway?

ESPN baseball expert Jesse Rogers tackles those questions and more.

Latest: MLB, players no closer to agreement | Playoff pitch, draft lottery in CBA talks

More: A brief history of MLB labor stoppages (ESPN+) | 'Oh my God, how can we do this?': An oral history of the 1994 MLB strike

How did we get here? What is a lockout -- and why now?​

The last deal between Major League Baseball and the MLBPA was negotiated in 2016. The current collective bargaining agreement covers everything from how long the season will last to what kind of per diem players receive on the road. It also addresses the greater economics of the game, such as free agency and arbitration. And it ends at midnight. If a new deal isn't in place, owners are expected to choose the lockout option to push the union into a more urgent state of negotiation. It's essentially the antithesis of a players' strike. Since players don't get paid in the offseason, nor are there games, there's nothing for them to strike over. Instead, the league can choose to halt all player activity as it relates to their teams. No free-agent signings, no use of team facilities -- in fact, no contact of any kind between team and player -- is allowed until a new agreement is reached.

How long is the lockout expected to last? Could games be lost next year?​

Yes, games could be lost. That's always a possibility once a work stoppage occurs, but with three months until the regular season begins, it would be shocking if 2022 didn't go a full 162 games. There is a chance spring training doesn't start on time, using that period as a soft deadline to force some issues to get resolved, but we're far from that happening. The sides already lost a lot of money during the pandemic. Anything short of a full season would be another devastating blow to the sport, both economically and from a public relations standpoint.

What is main sticking point in the negotiations between the owners and players?​

Economics. Players feel, with the emergence of analytics within front offices, that fewer and fewer second- and third-tier players are getting paid when they finally become free agents after six years of major league service time, which is often when a player turns 30 or very close to it. In general, players would like to be paid more at younger ages because that's when they are in their prime. The system also favors keeping players in the minor leagues for several weeks extra to slow down their major league service time. Players hate that. Additionally, they feel the cycle of teams rebuilding (aka tanking) is limiting payrolls. They would like some guardrails within the system to prevent those cycles. One good thing for the players: As long as there is no salary cap, the system will always pay the best of the best -- something the league likes to emphasize. Owners haven't even offered a hard cap during negotiations.
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Let's see if the MLB will hire scabs or not.
 
A few more very notable names are off the board:
  • Javier Baez has signed a 6 year, $140 million deal with the Tigers
  • Chris Taylor is re-signing with the Dodgers
  • Marcus Stroman is signing with the Cubs for 3 years and $71 million
  • Mark Melancon is signing with Arizona (to then likely be traded by August of 2023)
  • Rich Hill is returning to Boston
Trade update: Boston traded to bring back Jackie Bradley Jr. from Milwaukee along with two infield prospects (ranked 16th and 17th respectively for the Brewers as per mlb.com) for Hunter Renfroe. The latter prospect, Alex Binelas, was taken 85th overall in this past summer's draft.
 
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LOCKOUT TIME BOYS! Are you ready for ownership to whine like a bunch of faggots about how the players are killing the game while they raise ticket prices and murder youth interest in the sport, and demand cities pay for massive expensive stadiums while fan attendance is reaching dangerous levels?
 
Should I be worried by this one Commiefornia company buying all these minor league teams? It feels really sudden and almost like a knee-jerk reaction to MLB realigning the minors last year; they think handing control of teams over to non-MLB entities will keep Manfred's grungy fingers at a further distance. Then again, it is a California company so rev up those pride nights.
 
There may not be any MLB signings to report since we're in a lockout, but the other day it was announced that Yasiel Puig is heading to Korea to play for the Kiwoom Heroes of the KBO. It's a 1 year, $1 million deal.
 
Salubrious said:
Ok, this is hilarious.

So apparently, Ken Rosenthal is on Twitter sperging about the Texas Rangers. Why?

Because the Texas Rangers said this: Join us in taking a stand against bullying and in support of inclusion. #SpiritDay

Why is this tweet bad, you ask?

Because it didn't explicitly name bullying against LGBTQ+ people.

That's it. That is enough to get people bitching on Twitter now.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=eKhj_vKcXtw
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Update to our friend Rosenthal.

He has gotten the boot from MLB Network after 13 years for bad mouthing the boss.

nypost.com

Ken Rosenthal out at MLB Network due to previous criticism of Rob Manfred

MLB Network has cut ties with insider Ken Rosenthal, a move believed to be the end result of acrimony that peaked in the summer of 2020 after he criticized commissioner Rob Manfred.
nypost.com nypost.com
 
Sorry for the double post, but SI posted an article about the history of the first major Players' league.
www.si.com

Inside baseball’s first major labor war between players, owners - Sports Illustrated

The roots of today’s MLB lockout can be traced back to the problems that led to the Players’ League more than 100 years ago.
www.si.com www.si.com
How did baseball get here?

If this question seems relevant amid the ongoing lockout—echoing off the walls of a frozen game—a reasonable answer might be in the friction baked into MLB’s last collective bargaining agreement, in 2016. Another reasonable answer might suggest that the groundwork was laid in the agreement before that, in 2011, or two agreements before that, with the modern implementation of the competitive balance tax, in 2002. But if you’re going back two decades … well, you might as well go back all the way. Go closer to the origins of the historically fraught relationship between baseball players and owners. Go past the work stoppages of the last generation, past the fight for the first union in major professional sports and past, oh, another half-century and then some.

Welcome to the late 1880s. The American League did not yet exist. But the National League had been around for a little more than a decade—enough time for labor relations to have grown tense. The players felt that the owners’ vision for the game was fundamentally untenable for them. So they set off on their own. They had an idea for a version of baseball where they would have both a share of the profits and a say in the operations.

This was the Players’ League. The name captured the idea—a league by and for the players who made it. It was a radical concept, not just for organized labor in sports, but for organized labor, period. Led by a Hall of Fame shortstop named John Montgomery Ward, the league was born out of remarkable solidarity, with the majority of players who had been in the National League leaving to create the Players’ League. (The PL had 80 players who had previously been in the NL—enough to cover most of its rosters—while the NL that year was left with just 36.) For one year, they went head-to-head with their old bosses in the NL, and initially, they were successful. They drew more fans. Their players were more talented. Their brand-new ballparks were generally praised. They very well might have won—but then it all came crashing down with a twist of betrayal.

Yet it remains among the most interesting experiments in sports labor history, and its cause still resonates more than a century later.

“The issues that animated labor for baseball players in the 1880s have not disappeared,” says MLB’s official baseball historian, John Thorn. “A lot of that’s going to sound familiar.”
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Obviously not a lot of baseball stuff going on right now, but the Yankees hired the first female pro manager in baseball history for one of their minor league affiliates. This wouldn't be interesting on its own, after all this is just a Single A team and she seems decently competent (background as a conditioning and hitting coach with multiple MLB orgs, fluent in Spanish, etc.) but the team she's managing is called the "Tampa Tarpons". Someone in Steinbrenner's office is laughing his ass off over this one.

 
Every new season reminds me that 2008 is getting further and further away, and the Phillies ain't winning another one anytime soon.
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Salubrious said:
Update to our friend Rosenthal.

He has gotten the boot from MLB Network after 13 years for bad mouthing the boss.

nypost.com

Ken Rosenthal out at MLB Network due to previous criticism of Rob Manfred

MLB Network has cut ties with insider Ken Rosenthal, a move believed to be the end result of acrimony that peaked in the summer of 2020 after he criticized commissioner Rob Manfred.
nypost.com nypost.com
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I in no way believe that this was the only reason Rosenthal did not get his contract renewed. If people like Tom Verducci can write article’s like this and face no repercussions, I do not believe Ken Rosenthal would be let go only for some light criticism a year and a half ago. More than likely Rosenthal has been having disputes with management for a while now and the bad mouthing Manfred was a small part of it. The post hears this from a source, and writes it as if it is the only reason he is out. Suckers on twitter eat it up.
FaramirG said:
Obviously not a lot of baseball stuff going on right now, but the Yankees hired the first female pro manager in baseball history for one of their minor league affiliates. This wouldn't be interesting on its own, after all this is just a Single A team and she seems decently competent (background as a conditioning and hitting coach with multiple MLB orgs, fluent in Spanish, etc.) but the team she's managing is called the "Tampa Tarpons". Someone in Steinbrenner's office is laughing his ass off over this one.

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Congrats to this lady for being employed at one of the lowest branches of the least important farm system in the MLB!
 
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The 2022 Hall of Fame inductees were announced today. To be elected one needs 75% of the votes, and to at least stay on the ballot one needs at least 5% of the votes. Ortiz got in on his first attempt and was the only player on the ballot to get in. The other inductees got in back in December. The closest that a player got to being inducted while staying on the ballot was Scott Rolen with 63.2% of the vote on his 5th try.

Inducted:
  • David Ortiz (77.9%)
  • Bud Fowler
  • Gil Hodges
  • Jim Kaat
  • Minnie Minoso
  • Buck O'Neil
  • Tony Oliva
Failed on 10th attempt; now off the ballot:
  • Barry Bonds (66%)
  • Roger Clemens (65.2%)
  • Curt Schilling (58.6%)
  • Sammy Sosa (18.5%)
Failed to get at least 5% of the vote; all out on first attempt except for Hudson (second attempt):
  • Joe Nathan (4.3%)
  • Tim Hudson (3%)
  • Tim Lincecum (2.3%)
  • Ryan Howard (2%)
  • Mark Teixeira (1.5%)
  • Justin Morneau (1.3%)
  • Jonathan Papelbon (1.3%)
  • Prince Fielder (0.5%)
  • A.J. Pierzynski (no votes)
  • Jake Peavy (no votes)​
 
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