A tale of two baseballs and why it bodes poorly for the ongoing CBA negotiations

Photo by Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated via Getty ImagesThe current MLB lockout wasn’t surprising. Players have seen increased service time manipulation coupled with some of the slowest free agent markets in baseball history over the last few offseasons. That backdrop has had writers and fans prognosticating about potential labor woes as far back as December 2017. Some thought it was overly pessimistic, but that outlook was validated during the arduous negotiation of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, which both MLB and the MLBPA treated as a prelude to the current negotiations. The result was a 60-game season unilaterally implemented by Commissioner Rob Manfred, who later admitted the owners never intended to play more than 60-games regardless of the negotiations with the players. It remains to be seen if baseball will be played in 2022 when Manfred can’t just decree it.

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