How long will the MLB lock last? It’s unclear, but Winter Meetings and other off-season events will be affected

It’s official: Major League Baseball is shutting down for the first time since the 1994-95 players’ strike. At 11:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday night, the 2017-21 collective bargaining agreement expired, meaning that MLB and the MLB Players Association did not have a contract to conduct business. Owner-imposed lock started a few minutes after the CBA expired, and now we are all waiting for a solution.

What does the lockdown mean for the rest of the season? Well, no one really knows right now. NS MLB calendar is a big TBD at the present time. We will learn these in the next few weeks. Here are the upcoming season events originally scheduled and what the key means (or might mean) to them.

December 6-9: Winter Meetings in Orlando

The major tournament portion of the Winter Meeting has been cancelled. That said, the Winter Meeting is a minor league event, major league teams simply enter and the small portion of the tournament goes on as scheduled. That means job fairs, trade shows, promotional showcases, the like. However, the executives of the 30 major league teams will not be there and handling as they usually do during the Winter Meetings.

December 9: Draft Rule 5

There is precedent for Draft Rule 5, a mechanism designed to give younger athletes a greater chance of competing, being held during downtime. The 1994 draft Rule of 5 was made in the midst of a strike (in the Summary Perez and Tanyon Sturtze are the most recognizable names) with scouting directors and bridge development staff. Other players announce the selections, not the general manager.

It is not clear what will happen with this 5-year Draft Rule. Players selected in the Rule 5 Draft will be on the 40-man roster of their new team and become MLBPA members, with the possibility that MLB will postpone or even cancel the Rule 5 Draft. There is a period. minor tournament against Draft Rule 5 (younger athletes are taken and placed on the minor league reserve list of their new team as a non-40 player on the roster) and that can be organized according to the schedule as it does not involve union members. Currently, Draft Rule 5 is a great mystery.

January 14: Deadline for payment of wages to referees

On this date, the teams and their qualified referees will release salary figures for next season. The player submits the amount he believes he should be paid, the team submits it believes he should be paid, and if they attend the arbitration hearing, each party will state their case and the board. The council will choose the salary paid by the player or the salary paid by the team. There’s nothing in between. The majority of the players eligible to referee signed contracts before the application deadline. Only a few actually file, and even fewer go to hearings.

Technically, this deadline does not involve a major tournament transaction – the two parties are submitting salary figures to the referees panel, not talking to each other – and can therefore be held as scheduled. even during lockdown. That said, this is a deadline that seems ripe for procrastination. Why conduct official business during the lockdown? This deadline is more than a month away, so it’s not an urgent matter. However, if the account lockout is taking place in January, you can expect that this deadline has been pushed back indefinitely.

January 15: International signing period opens

MLB . Teams There are two avenues to get amateur talent: draft (covering the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico), and international free agency (covering the rest of the world). The international signing period normally lasts from July 2 to June 25 every year, but the 2020-21 and 2021-22 signing periods have been pushed back because of the pandemic. Technically, the international signing period from 2021 to 22 will start on January 15.

International amateur players sign contracts with minor leagues, so in theory the signing could go ahead as scheduled during the cut-off period. However, it is likely to be pushed back as the upcoming CBA could change the rules. Specifically, an international draft could be adopted. MLB has been pushing an international draft for years (decades, actually), and the league is no coincidence. Pushing back the signing deadline after the CBA expires allows the federation to easily implement the new rules immediately.

So there is no official word yet, but I strongly believe that the opening of the international signing period will be postponed indefinitely. These are MLB.com’s top 30 international leads. Dominican short-distancer Roderick Arias, consensus No. 1 prospect, is expected to sign with Yankees.

January 20, 2022 Hall of Fame class announced

Good news: the 2022 Hall of Fame class will be announced as scheduled. This is neither an MLB nor an MLBPA event. This event belongs to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and they do not participate in a strike. Here’s what you need to know about the 2022 Hall of Fame ballot. Next year’s Hall of Fame class will actually be announced on January 20th. Don’t worry here.

Mid-February: Opening of Spring Training

This is when the MLBPA and especially the MLB will start to feel the heat. In the end, a lock in the deadly winter is not a giant deal. It shuts down free agency and hearth in general, and that’s a pity for fans, but it’s not like the games are being missed. However, once spring training started and the paychecks were in line, that’s when everyone was put on fire.

To be clear, the players are not paid during spring training. They get the per diem while on the road and that’s it. Players are only paid contractually for six months of the regular season. The owners have turnover on the line in spring training. It’s not nearly as much as in the regular season, but there are plenty of tickets on sale and games going to air in February and March. If those games are not played, it will lose revenue. At that point, the account lockout will start to cost the owner money.

March 31: Opening day

A season-long lockdown is usually the worst-case scenario for all involved. The owners started losing revenue during the regular season, the players didn’t get paid, and the fans didn’t have baseballs to watch. There is precedent for stopping work to shorten spring training (course 1990 and the 1994-95 strike) and delay Opening Day, but that is not a situation where anyone also desired. Postponing regular games of the season would be bad. Discarding them would be a nightmare and cause serious harm to the product.

Manfred, in his Thursday morning press conference, expressed optimism about starting the 2022 season on time.

Confusingly, the pandemic could save us from a job shutdown that has caused regular season games to be postponed or cancelled. Neither the MLB nor the MLBPA want a third consecutive season compromised. The players lost 63% of their wages in the 60-game 2020 season and owners lost a lot of revenue in the shortened 2020 season and again when many 2021 games are played with headcount restrictions. attend. Neither side wants to lose more wages.

We know MLB and MLBPA can do a truncated spring training session, if necessary. They did just that last season with a three-week summer camp. Is it ideal? No, but it’s doable, so extending to the early days of spring training isn’t the end of the world. It’s not great, but it’s not a disaster either. However, an extended lockdown into the regular season would be a disaster. No one benefits. I hope both sides understand better than jeopardizing regular games of the season. Whether they can reach the new CBA in time is another matter entirely. Once the lockdown starts and work stops, the calculation will change.