At 11:59 p.m. ET on December 1, 2021, the existing Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association expired. And even though most baseball pundits expected – and predicted – that the two factions would take a little time off (due to the pandemic) before getting together to begin what is expected to be a rather lengthy perhaps even contentious process on approving a new CBA, it was being widely reported on Thursday that expectations are that talks will not even begin until after the New Year.

According to Evan Drellich of The Athletic (subscription required), the two sides “…aren’t expected to discuss the game’s core economic structure until sometime in January.” He did add, however, that the two parties have “…been in contact about other issues and are expected to meet in-person [on Friday] to discuss issues outside of core economics.” Drellich notes that those core economics include “…service time structure, playoff expansion, and the competitive balance tax.”

Core economics indeed.

Although ‘Hope Springs Eternal,’ and all that, former Dodgers General Manager and current SportsNet LA analyst Ned Colletti said during a recent airing of Access SportsNet: Dodgers that he doesn’t think that negotiations will begin in earnest in mid-February. He quickly added, however, that he believes that a new CBA will be in place before the scheduled start of Spring Training 2022, adding that he doesn’t think that it will cause any “disruptions” to Spring Training beginning on time.

Keep in mind that Dodgers pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report for Spring Training 2022 the week of February 14 (although most show up a week earlier) and that the Dodgers first Spring Training game is scheduled for Saturday, February 26, 2022, against the Chicago Cubs at Sloan Park in Mesa, Arizona, with their Spring Training home opener against the San Diego Padres the following day at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Arizona.

Hope does indeed spring eternal.

All of this aside, it is impossible for baseball fans not to have noticed some interesting workarounds (for lack of a better term) to the current lockout by both MLB and the MLBPA.

With teams prevented from signing players during the lockout, several MLB teams have been noticeably busy signing players to Minor League contracts, undoubtedly with a promise that they will be added to their respective 40-man rosters once the lockout ends and a new CBA is in place. Granted, this most certainly does not include the (many) big-name free agents out there, but it is locking down a good many fringe Major Leaguers, including many of the game’s top prospects.

On the other side of the coin, it is also impossible for baseball fans not to have noticed that a good number of MLB free agents are signing with professional baseball teams abroad, most notably with Japan’s NPB and South Korea’s KBO. Here again, this most certainly does not include the (many) big-name free agents out there, but it does guarantee these players that they will be playing professionally in 2022 regardless of what happens with the MLB lockout, so there’s that.

As they say, “All’s fair in love and war.”

Play Ball!

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Author’s note: There is an excellent article on the current MLB lockout at cbssports.com by CBS sportswriter Dayn Perry. It is definitely worth a read.

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