The lockout will halt all player activity including free agency, player trades and use of team facilities.
Major League Baseball locked out its players early on Thursday morning, plunging the sport into its first work stoppage in 26 years after team owners and players failed to reach terms on a new collective bargaining agreement ahead of a midnight deadline.Key Facts
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced the lockout in an official statement where he said the league believes that an offseason lockout was “the best mechanism to protect the 2022 season.”by the league’s player association which called it a “dramatic measure” that was being used to “pressure players into relinquishing their rights and benefits.”
The lockout will halt all player activity including free agency, player trades and use of team facilities, while team officials are barred from communicating with players in any way. The key areas of contention raised by the players and rejected by the league include compensating younger players earlier, raising luxury tax thresholds, a salary floor and other measures that would force teams to be more competitive.
The off-season lockout means that the 2022 season—which is scheduled to begin in March—may still go ahead if the league and players manage to reach a new collective bargaining agreement.