Manfred: MLB lockout ‘not a good thing for the sport’
Derek Jeter was playing for the Columbus Clippers, the New York Yankees’ Triple A affiliate, the last time Major League Baseball had a work stoppage.
The minor-league season was nearing its final weeks when the players finalized their decision to strike on Aug. 12, 1994. The MLB season came to a screeching halt. No more regular-season games. No playoffs. No World Series.
“I remember at the time, I was disappointed because that was a year I went from A to Double A to Triple A and I thought I was gonna get called up to the major leagues,” Jeter said Wednesday. “And then there was a work stoppage. It’s amazing how your mind-set changes from a player who was just selfish, thinking ‘I was gonna get called up. Now it didn’t happen.’ But yeah, it was odd. It wasn’t good for the sport.”
Fast forward to the present day, and Jeter is on the opposite side of the situation. He’s the Miami Marlins’ CEO, and here he was trying to remain optimistic a work stoppage wouldn’t happen.
“I’m hopeful that there is going to be an agreement moving forward,” Jeter said.
Despite a week of last-ditch negotiation efforts between the league and the MLB Players’ Association, that agreement didn’t come by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, when the collective bargaining agreement officially expired.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred invoked a lockout two minutes later, a move that was unanimously agreed upon by league owners and what he called “the best strategy to protect the 2022 season for the benefit of our fans.”
“It’s not a good thing for the sport,” Manfred told reporters Thursday in Texas. “It’s not something that we undertake lightly. We understand it’s bad for our business. We took it out of a desire to drive the process forward to an agreement now.”
Under the lockout, the sport is in essence at a standstill.
There is a freeze on trades and signings of MLB players. Teams can have no communication between players on their MLB rosters. Minor-league players and the minor-league season are unaffected by the lockout.
Games for the 2022 season have not been canceled yet, but the risk for the season being delayed is there depending on how long it takes for teams to agree on a deal. Spring training is tentatively set for midFebruary. The regular season is slated to start on March 31.
Players are still able to practice and hold workouts on their own away from club facilities, but they are not allowed to receive feedback from coaches or team trainers.
“People need pressure sometimes to get to an agreement,” Manfred said. “Candidly, we didn’t feel that sense of pressure from the other side during the course of this week, and the only tool available to you under the [National Labor Relations Act] is to apply economic leverage.”
The MLB Players’ Association, in a statement Thursday morning, called the lockout “a dramatic measure, regardless of the timing.”
“It is not required by law or any other reason. It was the owners’ choice, plain and simple, specifically calculated to pressure Players into relinquishing rights and benefits, and abandoning good faith bargaining proposals that will benefit not just Players, but the game and industry as a whole,” the MLBPA statement reads. “These tactics are not new. We have been here before, and Players have risen to the occasion time and again — guided by a solidarity that has been forged over generations. We will do so again here. We remain determined to return to the field under the terms of a negotiated collective bargaining agreement that is fair to all parties and provides fans with the best version of the game we all love.”
Manfred said that as of Thursday there are currently no meetings planned between the league and the players’ association, but the “desire [is] to get back to the table as quickly as we can.”
“It is my hope and expectation that the parties will get back to the table and get an agreement done,” he said.