The Lockout Continues, but Here’s Why MLB’s Owners Have Already Won

Baseball fans are still holding their breath for the sport’s season to start on time. Since MLB owners locked out the players in early December, the work stoppage is now the second-longest in major league history. Spring training is on ice. But just a few days ago, MLB announced that for the first time, it will be meeting with the MLB Players’ Association every day to try hammering out an agreement. If the two sides can do so in the next week, the season can start on time. The disagreements revolve around money, of course. But as analyst and baseball newsletter writer Joe Sheehan has pointed out, if the owners were to simply accept all of the players’ current proposals – which they won’t, of course – overall player pay would still be less than it was at its peak in 2018. In that sense, the owners have already won, and they’ve been refusing to play ball just to squeeze out every last dollar they can.