Congratulations to the Milwaukee Brewers, the 2026 World Series champions. It\u2019s the first championship in the franchise\u2019s 57 years of existence. They had the best record in baseball in each of the past two seasons and they put it all together against the Tampa Bay Rays this October.<\/p>\n
Now that 2026 is officially done and behind us, every team has to be focused on the future \u2013 even the Rays and Brewers. There is no rest for the weary. The preparations for 2027 have begun for all 30 teams.<\/p>\n
It is hard to make a concrete plan with so much uncertainty about the future. The business structure of the game is likely to change as the players and owners try to negotiate a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, with the current CBA set to expire on Dec. 1.<\/p>\n
We only know what the initial proposals are so far and it\u2019s unclear where either side is willing to move to make a deal. The owners want a salary cap and the players are adamant that they won\u2019t accept one. It\u2019s highly unlikely that there will be a quick resolution to this negotiation. <\/p>\n
It seems likely that the owners will lock out the players on Dec. 2. At that point, there will be no trades, no signings, no negotiations, and no communication between anyone in the organizations and the players. The game will go dark. Once a lockout is in place, only a negotiated agreement will open the game once again.<\/p>\n
Over the next month, the baseball calendar will remain the same. Players who are eligible will become free agents. Teams can make trades. Agents will talk to general managers about interest in their players. There will even be some signings that take place.<\/p>\n
Prior to the last lockout there was a flurry of signings that took place, as a special niche of players who believed they would only be hurt by waiting for the new CBA made deals. It\u2019s critical for clubs to gather as much information as possible from agents and other clubs over the next month, so they can move quickly when the game opens again.<\/p>\n
Balancing the risk of a potential salary cap<\/p>\n
General managers are going to be in a tough spot. Much of what they do between now and the lockout will be determined by the strength of the conviction from their owner as to whether they truly believe they will hold out until the players cave on the salary cap proposal or not.<\/p>\n
Teams with a payroll below the proposed cap may be very active in the next month if their owner truly believes that they will have more money to spend under the new system. Teams already spending above the proposed cap may be passive in the next month, as they wait for clarity from their owner.<\/p>\n
Some large-market teams may look to shed payroll now in anticipation of a salary cap. Others may spend now and ask for forgiveness later if a new system is put in place that limits their spending.<\/p>\n
The owners\u2019 proposal indicated that teams would have to get beneath the cap by 2027. That is not very realistic. Clubs will have to be grandfathered into the agreed upon salary range, since it could be difficult to trade some big contracts. Plus, there may be no-trade clauses that reduce roster flexibility.<\/p>\n
Each team will handle the next month differently. Large-market teams could be caught in a pickle if there is a salary cap. They will likely have to trade good players for discounted prices and eat some of the money to clear players off their books.<\/p>\n
Prior to the lockout, I would try to stand pat if I was a large-market general manager and hold on to all of my high-priced players. I won\u2019t give away good players who are expensive in anticipation of a salary cap. I would rather wait and see how much time I have to get my payroll in line with the new system \u2013 unless my owner tells me to move sooner.<\/p>\n
If I was running a small-market team that could have more money to spend, I would be engaged in conversations with the agents of the players I want and then let my owner know the price and try to get approval to sign players now. I would think big and explore high-priced acquisitions in trades as well. I would only pull the trigger on any deal if my owner tells me to do so, though.<\/p>\n
Sometimes owners have short memories about their approvals of personnel decisions. Sometimes they forget that they pushed their general manager to make a deal. They remember better when the deal works out than when the deal fails for some reason.<\/p>\n
Lockout presents chance for internal improvement<\/p>\n
When the lockout happens, the game will go dark. Any violation of that could be met with strict penalties. It\u2019s just not worth taking a chance. So, it\u2019s critical to get all of the communication done beforehand, both inside and outside of the organization.<\/p>\n
In addition to agents and other general managers, each club will have to communicate the rehab programs for their injured players and areas of improvement for every player.<\/p>\n
I believe a lockout does present an opportunity to improve your organization. All of the focus can be internal on the processes within the club. The development of the minor leaguers can become even more of a priority, as they will continue to play during the lockout. The analytics department can be dissected and perfected. Language and terminology can be standardized from the major leagues to the minor leagues.<\/p>\n
It is hard to predict what will happen with the CBA negotiations. I\u2019m surprised that the owners reached an accord to even propose a salary cap. I figured large-market teams would have balked at it, but somehow, they got on the same page. The Major League Baseball Players Association is the strongest union in all of professional sports, and the two sides are far apart as the negotiations start to get serious. <\/p>\n
There are going to be days where both sides are angry and lash out. There will be a lot of negativity. Don\u2019t let that affect you. Stay positive. I believe that the players and owners love the game and want to make an agreement. Both sides are going to have to give if they want to take in this negotiation.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s all put positivity out into the universe. And let\u2019s play ball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Congratulations to the Milwaukee Brewers, the 2026 World Series champions. It\u2019s the first championship in the franchise\u2019s 57…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":951998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,9963,107115,462,82,34168],"class_list":["post-951997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-collective-bargaining-agreement","tag-lockout","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-strike"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=951997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}