As a new MLB season starts, potential for 2027 lockout looms over baseball

The popularity of MLB is on the rise, but baseball and its players are headed toward a standoff that could lead to a work stoppage next December.

As a new MLB season started this week, the topic on the mind of many within baseball was not how many home runs Aaron Judge would hit or whether the Los Angeles Dodgers will win a third consecutive World Series.

It’s this: When this season ends, how long will it take for baseball to return?

The expiration of the collective bargaining agreement between the league and its players union in December has turned the possibility — or even the given — of a work stoppage next offseason into the proverbial elephant in the clubhouse.

“A lockout is all but guaranteed at the end of the agreement,” said Bruce Meyer, the acting executive director of the MLB Players Association, in February. “The league has pretty much said that.”

More than a year earlier, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told The Athletic that a lockout during the offseason would be “actually a positive.”