![\"MLB](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791454826_277_image.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
(Photo by Stefon Young-Rolle\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Major League Baseball has instructed its clubs on how to operate during a potential lockout, including plans to again scrub player images from official websites and largely ban contact between team officials and players, The Athletic reported<\/a> Wednesday.<\/p>\n Dan Halem, MLB’s second-in-command to commissioner Rob Manfred, sent the confidential, 34-page memo to owners and high-ranking team executives on Oct. 1. The current collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1, and a stoppage would likely begin at midnight Eastern entering Dec. 2. The guidance covers all 30 clubs, including the Toronto Blue Jays, MLB’s lone Canadian franchise.<\/p>\n \u201cOur commitment has been and remains to exhaust every realistic option to achieve our goal of reaching an agreement with the Players Association,\u201d Halem wrote in the memo. \u201cHowever, clubs need to be prepared for the possibility that an agreement will not be reached by then and the clubs are left with no realistic alternative but to implement a lockout of major league players.\u201d<\/p>\n Under a lockout, virtually all business between teams and players on 40-man rosters would halt until a new deal is reached, meaning no trades and no signings.<\/p>\n Player images and videos would again be “scrubbed” from official team and league websites, repeating a step MLB took during the 2021-22 lockout. The memo says MLB’s digital arm will create alternate versions of club and league websites with players’ likenesses removed, and that “player names and pictures would be removed from article headlines.”<\/p>\n Team stores could still sell merchandise featuring players’ names and images, because those rights come from other business arrangements, such as with the union’s licensing arm.<\/p>\n Club officials are told to avoid players “to the greatest extent possible,” because “the line between permissible and prohibited conversations is not always clear,” Halem wrote. Staff who encounter a player in public “should be cordial,” and team employees invited to a player’s wedding may attend during the lockout but must avoid discussing business. Players who left cars at team facilities for the winter would have to remove them.<\/p>\n Because some agents represent both minor leaguers and major leaguers, teams cannot cut off agents entirely, but “the scope of any agent communications must be monitored and strictly controlled,” according to the memo. Clubs may provide offseason workout plans to players before a lockout begins, but not afterward.<\/p>\n “Sending Players holiday cards or gifts would not be permissible during a Lockout,” Halem wrote. “Clubs could send holiday cards or gifts to players prior to Dec. 2.”<\/p>\n Winter Ball, Rule 5 Draft and Ticket Holders<\/p>\n MLB will not try to stop players from playing in other professional leagues during a lockout, including winter ball, which opens the door to players heading to Japan or elsewhere.<\/p>\n The league is also concerned that players could claim injuries occurred before a lockout and seek workers’ compensation. The memo advises clubs to document interactions between players and medical and training staff late in the season.<\/p>\n During the last lockout, the major league portion of the Rule 5 draft was canceled and not rescheduled. Whether it is rescheduled this time would be determined in bargaining, while the minor league Rule 5 draft is set to proceed as normal.<\/p>\n The memo also provides pre-approved talking points for ticket sales staff. One suggested response reads: “We are not able to comment on or speculate about the collective bargaining process. What I can tell you is that we are preparing for the 2027 season and operating as though it will proceed as planned.” Another tells season-ticket holders that if the number of games in their plans is affected, they will have options such as an account credit or refund for canceled games.<\/p>\n Baseball fans in Canada tracking the offseason can follow sports betting odds<\/a> for 2027 futures markets and read RG’s review of Stake.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Photo by Stefon Young-Rolle\/Getty Images) Major League Baseball has instructed its clubs on how to operate during a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-875015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}