Ice has been broken in MLB’s labor lockout. But no concrete resolution appears imminent
Dates on the calendar tend to approach a great deal more quickly when you’ve pushed something off to one that seems to be in the far future.
As Major League Baseball’s lockout approaches its third week, Wednesday brought news of active negotiations for the first time since the stoppage became official Dec. 2. A report from Evan Drellich of The Athletic indicated negotiations over some “areas outside of core economics” were imminent, though the sides aren’t likely to discuss the thornier issues until into January.
None of this comes as a particular surprise. With the holidays approaching and no hard deadlines on the immediate horizon, the chief negotiators for MLB and its Players Association have each said they’re waiting on movement from the other, content to sit idle and buy time even as those calendar pages start to flutter in the breeze.
With pitchers and catchers currently scheduled to report to most spring camps on Valentine’s Day, letting a full month evaporate without any negotiations on the most crucial issues defining the lockout is certainly a risky gamble.
There is something to be said for the strategy of approaching agreements on minor issues and hoping those build momentum for more serious talks. The time and space of winter also give the sides the ability to allow cooler heads to prevail and explore potentially creative solutions which may not reveal themselves under more substantial time pressure.
All the while, players (and reporters, too!) who frequently time their spring leases to begin Feb. 1 are faced with the reality they may not need accommodations as quickly as they may have been expecting.
For their part, the Cardinals have conducted business as usual, save for the ritual scrubbing of any current players from the team’s marketing materials. A Wednesday announcement touted popular theme nights for the upcoming summer with tickets on sale now. Passes have been sold for the annual Winter Warm-Up, set to return in 2022 after a virtual year due to the pandemic, though autograph tickets aren’t yet available.
Planning for things to be normal is all anyone can do until, suddenly, that normal slips through our collective grasp.
It’s impossible to say how far apart the sides truly are in negotiations. The last in-person sessions, taking place in the run up to Dec. 2 at a hotel outside of Dallas, produced relatively few concrete reports of the solutions being offered. There is, as always, a way to read positivity in that posture, and a bright side that comes with keeping what’s said in the room in the room.
Everything can change with a phone call
Still, the lockout came, and the meetings broke up. Players who see their compatriots being squeezed out of the free agent market and providing an unequal percentage of the value of teams before they’re able to realize their earning potential are not likely to break their solidarity on a whim. And owners, seeking as ever to turn a dollar into a $1.02 without much — if any — consideration for the long-term health of the sport, intend to squeeze if for no other reason than they can.
Throughout baseball, those with their hands on the levers of power have been known to say that everything can change in the span of one phone call. Where there may have previously been no foundation for a deal, the right person with the right idea at the right time can spur a great deal of action.
Unfortunately, those things don’t happen overnight.
Rewriting baseball’s operating agreement in any significant way — and at least some of the changes are bound to be significant, lest the stoppage continue to stretch — will require protracted haggling. It will require precise legal maneuvering and a pairing of trust with antagonism, though only the latter has prevailed among the parties in recent years.
Potential pressure points
Fans indeed can by and large put any consideration of the broader labor issues out of their minds until Feb. 1. The negotiators can’t afford to do the same. If the baseball season is to start on time, or even if we are to see only a slightly delayed spring training schedule every hour of time becomes more precious given an hour’s ability to dislodge opposing forces, dug in against each other for a fight that hasn’t been truly fought in nearly three decades.
Real estate concerns and a desire to work out in a weight room with team logos on the equipment rather than a well-stocked private gym won’t be the grease that turns the wheels of the lockout, but they will form pressure points. Slowly but undeniably, these points will add up, and if baseball’s holiday procrastination comes without consequences, it may only be because the parties are indeed as fortunate as they’ve been at odds thus far.
Next month can really creep up on you when you have a big assignment due. For the caretakers of baseball, there’s none bigger than making sure they’re using their time wisely.
