MLBPA's Tony Clark Predicts Work Stoppage Next Season Amid CBA Negotiations

Major League Baseball Players Association executive director Tony Clark said Friday that he expects there to be a lockout amid negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement next year.

According to Sportico's Barry M. Bloom, Clark said: "Unless I am mistaken, the league has come out and said there's going to be a work stoppage. So, I don't think I'm speaking out of school in that regard."

Clark was referencing comments made by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred to The Athletic in January when he said the following about offseason lockouts: “In a bizarre way, it's actually a positive. The great thing about offseason lockouts is the leverage that exists gets applied between the bargaining parties."

The current CBA, which was agreed upon in 2022 and finalized in May 2023, runs through Dec. 1, 2026.

Prior to the agreement of the current CBA, there was a lockout of just over three months from December 2021 to March 2022.

While it delayed the start of the 2022 season, MLB was still able to play out the 162-game schedule, meaning no games had to be canceled as a result.

Of the nine lockouts or strikes that have taken place since 1972, three of them have resulted in the cancellation of games. The most recent occurrence came in 1994 and 1995 when a total of 938 regular-season games were canceled, as well as the 1994 playoffs and World Series.

Manfred recently likened an offseason lockout to "using a .22 [caliber firearm], as opposed to a shotgun or a nuclear weapon," which didn't seem to sit well with Clark, who said Friday: "The statement has been there's going to be a lockout and it's a good thing for the game, even to go as far as saying it's like using a .22 rather than shotgun."

Clark noted Friday that he expects negotiations to begin next spring, and if a deal is not reached by Dec. 1, 2026, it would lead to another lockout.

The biggest hot-button issue in CBA talks figures to be the institution of a salary cap, which the MLBPA has always resisted.

Clark remained defiant on the subject of a salary cap, saying: "We haven't agreed to that in 50, 60 years."

He also expressed his belief that there are ways to address parity issues in baseball that don't require a cap: "I will say this: There are ways of addressing the system that aren't salary or cap related or require the restrictions of player salaries as the answer to every one of these questions."

There have been plenty of calls from outside observers for an MLB salary cap over the years, and the whispers have perhaps gotten even louder over the past year due to the free-spending ways of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Dodgers have the highest payroll in baseball at just over $321 million, per Spotrac. They signed Shohei Ohtani to a $700 million deal and Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a $325 million contract last offseason and have gone on a spending spree this offseason as well, signing Blake Snell, Tanner Scott, Roki Sasaki and a host of others.

Eight teams have a payroll of $200 million or more, while seven are spending under $100 million, which speaks to the gap between the haves and have-nots.

While MLB and its owners will likely push hard for a cap, Clark seems to be taking a hardline stance against it, which could be the issue that leads to a lockout.