World Series Done, Lockout Looms as MLB Enters High-Stakes Offseason

The Milwaukee Brewers' World Series triumph has barely been celebrated before Major League Baseball plunged into an offseason of great uncertainty, with owners widely expected to lock out players if a new labour deal cannot be reached before the current agreement expires on December 1. At the heart of the negotiations is a salary cap that would limit how much the league's 30 teams can spend on player wages, a system the league says would address the payroll gap between big-market and small-market clubs. The MLB Players Association considers a cap a non-starter. Under MLB's initial proposal, the cap for 2027 would be set at $245.3 million, a figure that would require eight clubs, including the Dodgers, Mets, Yankees and Blue Jays, to reduce payroll by a combined $578 million. A lockout would halt all player activity connected to clubs, including free-agent signings, trades and use of team facilities. Baseball has not missed games through a work stoppage since the 1994-95 players' strike, although the last time a deal expired, after the 2021 season, a 99-day lockout delayed the start of the 2022 campaign by a week.