The MLB lockout is over, ending on day ninety-nine.
None of this had to happen.
Major League Baseball’s group of owners could have negotiated with the players from day one.
Instead, they locked out the players as a power move a few minutes after the previous deal expired.
They could have negotiated with the players immediately after the lockout.
Instead, they waited over a month and a half before submitting their first serious response to the offers submitted by the players.
They could have started compromising with the players from the start.
Instead, they repeatedly tried to bring in a federal mediator, which the players declined repeatedly.
They could have just negotiated, without trying to manipulate the fans to place blame and pressure on the players.
Instead, they leaked out information specifically designed to turn the public against the players, including late-night reports about a deal being close last weekend, which was refuted by the players.
They could have done all of this without having to cancel two weeks worth of games during the regular season.
Instead, just kidding, they’ll play those games anyway.
The owners played this like a game, and they knew exactly how to win. They applied pressure on the players in every way that they had leverage. They applied pressure even in obvious ways, where it was clear to everyone what they were doing, but they kept doing it anyway like we were all stupid because ultimately they can do whatever they want.
We’ve given them our tax dollars. They work hard to obfuscate their revenues to show whether they really need it. We’ve given them anti-trust status. They’re working to make that apply to their ability to restrict the earnings of every player in their organization, and spend millions in lawyer fees fighting any challenge to their ability to run a legal monopoly.
The players felt the impact of that monopoly during this process.
Don’t like what we’re offering? Go play somewhere else.
Oh, that’s right, you can’t!
Unless you want to go play overseas and leave everyone you know behind. A lot of players already did that to come here and play.
What we’ve learned through this is the owners don’t need a full season of MLB as much as the players do. Especially the players who aren’t making millions.
The owners are billionaires. Some of them are billionaires simply because they own a baseball team and have owned it for a long time. For example, Bob Nutting, objectively by many metrics, is a horrible owner. He’s also a billionaire, despite being really bad at the biggest thing that makes him a billionaire. He’s a billionaire because his father bought the Pirates at an opportune time. Imagine a new neighborhood being built. Ogden Nutting bought his house in this neighborhood when it was a sprawling pile of dirt. A few decades later, his son owns the majority of a house in a really expensive neighborhood, even though he paid very little initially.
Other owners are billionaires who bought a baseball team. There’s a massive difference in that distinction. In either case, the owners showed their hand, and showed that they would be fine missing one-sixth of the season to get a favorable deal.
They repeatedly proclaimed that they wouldn’t be paying a full season of wages once they cancel games — something that would have had to be bargained, but a claim that, if they hold hard enough to it, adds just one more thing for the players to have to negotiate against.
If you look closely, you can see the owner’s true talent on display.
Didn’t see it? Let me help you.
This past week alone, the owners reached deals with Apple TV and Peacock that pays a combined $115 million to stream games two nights a week. The deals will remove games from the MLB.tv packages, although I’m sure those packages will remain the same price, or even increase as the lockout gets further in the rear view.
In the same week, MLB cancelled games, due to being handcuffed by the lockout that they created and maintained, and they created up a brand new bargaining position that ultimately worked. The players will get paid a full season, but they’re going to have to play all of the games, and in a shorter amount of time.
The true talent, in both of these cases, is that the owners are able to create something substantial out of nothing.
They’re able to just make an extra $115 million dollars a year appear, and they could do the same with all of the other streaming networks out there for other nights of the week with future deals. Granted, this isn’t a full $115 million windfall for the owners, as these deals replace games that ESPN dropped, albeit at a much higher rate than the previous deals. I wouldn’t be surprised to see MLB make more deals like this for more days of the week with more streaming services, likely ending up paying for any concessions they gave to the players by leveraging anything and everything in this game to the max.
That’s how you become a billionaire. Not by hard work or determination, but by having rich parents and growing up in an atmosphere where you ultimately expect to get your way in the world, and where you’re shown how to apply leverage to fight back against resistance or turn to the government for help when things aren’t going your way — and that’s how you get a group of 30 of the richest men in the world running four times to a federal mediator during this process because the mean players wouldn’t move 99 percent before the owners moved one percent.
The owners created a lockout. Then they created urgency and a deadline. Then they created a need for games to be cancelled, while pushing their negotiation marker further away from the players. Meanwhile, they created $115 million in revenue just by selling exclusive games two nights out of the week to two streaming services. They created obstacles and hurdles for the players, while continuing to create revenue for themselves.
The problem I see going forward? The players have a fixed salary structure for most of the MLB players, and the owners are attacking away on amateur bonuses, minor league pay, and how many minor leaguers they have to pay. Those salary structures are largely based on the current league revenue projections. The owners can always add more revenue, and in ways where it doesn’t have to go to the players. They’ve done this in the past, with one example being the sale of BAMTech to Disney. The long-term trend has been record league revenues year-over-year, and the players receiving a smaller percentage of those record revenues than before.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re back in this same mess five years from now, with MLB still making record revenues, but finding ways to avoid paying the players their share, and fighting to maintain all of the gains they continue to manipulate and steal away.
Ultimately, it will end up the same way. The owners have the money. The players don’t. And that’s ironic, because we know every cent a player could make the moment he signs a deal with an MLB team, but unless that MLB team is the Atlanta Braves, we’ll never know how much profit that team made per year. We just have to take the owners at their word that they’re not taking profits, and trust that it’s actually the millionaire players being greedy, and not the 30 billionaires who are reporting that they’re all working for free.
Any time the players try to push for better wages, MLB will follow this same playbook.
Strip their voice away with a lockout.
Manipulate the public to think this is all the fault of the players, and remind the public how much more these players make than them.
Stonewall for months and refuse to budge on anything, as the players rush to grab the weaker negotiating position in an attempt to disprove the idea that they’re at fault for this.
Start cancelling games, and start threatening the pay of the players, which compounds with the public anger you continue to direct their way.
Fortunately, this tactic didn’t fully work this time around. There were people who bought what the owners were selling, and blamed the players. There were more people who saw what the owners were doing, and blamed them. Ideally, the latter number grows from this point.
The owners plan still worked very well.
And unfortunately, money will always signal power and command respect for a lot of people in this world, especially in this capitalist country.
Thus, MLB has a playbook that seems infallible.
At least until the MLBPA starts getting proactive, rather than reactive.
Pirates Prospects Spotlight
Pirates Prospects Who Could Be Most Affected By an Extended MLB Lockout
I wanted to write some thoughts on this scenario, as it looked likely to happen for a bit there. This article would have been something I would have expanded upon as the season went on. Fortunately, the lockout is over, and none of these scenarios are relevant anymore. However, they provide a nice perspective now on what was avoided.
Daily Links
**John Dreker: MLB and MLBPA Reach Agreement
**Tim William s: Bear Bellomy Overcame a Hitter Friendly Home Park With a Lot of Strikeouts
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