In announcing that the league was cancelling the first two series of the regular season Tuesday, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred erased five games from the Philadelphia Phillies’ 2022 schedule; three in Houston and two in D.C.
However, it might take even more missed games until the league is financially incentivized to make significant concessions to the MLB Players Association.
In addition to noting that teams typically make more of a profit during the summer months when the weather is the nicest, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic wrote Wednesday that “local television contracts generally do not require clubs to issue rebates to their networks until about 25 games are missed.