Has the Major League Baseball Lockout Ended?

Social media makes you think so.

Earlier this week, I had to ask a good friend of mine whether the major league baseball was still going on. There are plenty of articles and updates coming from the teams. One player signed a contract. Yes, there is still a lockout. No, this one is not like the 1994 strike that almost ruined baseball.

Lockouts

A strike and a lockout are the two types of work stoppages. A lockout means that all business is on hold until a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) can be reached. By locking out the players, the league’s owners are prohibiting the signing of baseball superstars to free agency deals, player trades, and the use of baseball facilities by the players.

There have been five lockouts in 120 years of Major League Baseball. The modern-era lockouts in 1973, 1976, and 1990 occurred in the offseason. Spring Training was impacted but there was no impact on the regular season or playoffs.

Strikes

The 1994–1995 strike is the work stoppage that everyone remembers. The strike started in August 1194 and canceled the remainder of the season and the playoffs. When the players came back to work on Opening Day 1995, the 232-day strike was the longest in any sport to that time. The strike resulted in significant harm to professional baseball.

Big Leagues and Big Business

The top 5 teams in major league baseball have values of $3B or more. The New York Yankees have the highest value at more than $5B, followed by the Dodgers, Red Sox, Cubs, and Giants at approximately $3B. The Miami Marlins are the lowest valued team at $990M, followed by the Rays, Royals, Reds with values just over $1B. The median value (half of the teams above and half of the teams below) is $1.65B.

The top five teams have no debt. All but three teams have debt to value percentages of less than 20%. Payroll as a percentage of overall expenses is approximately 60% for five teams and under 60% for all others.

The median salary for a major league baseball player is $1.15 million per year. The 2021 minimum salary was $570,500 a year. There were 20 players earning above $25 million per year, while more than a hundred made more than $10 million. The two highest earners in 2021 were Mike Trout at $37.12 million per year and Jacob deGrom at $36 million per year.

Major League Baseball is a good business.

Looking at the Lockout

The public relations machines are working full force to maintain the image of major league baseball during the lockout. The presence of social media now versus the lack of it in the 1994 strike or 1990 lockout makes the public relations aspect a little easier and a little sharper. Hopefully, baseball owners and baseball players still remember the devastation caused by 1994.

Let us hope that the owners and players can resolve how to split their revenues better and resolve some fine points on free agency.