Latest news with #allstarbreak
National Post
12 hours ago
- Business
- National Post
MLB's 2027 work stoppage? Baseball folks already are talking about it
Article content Major League Baseball's all-star break is no longer a break, not for the people who run these clubs, anyway. Article content The draft, which is just about all-consuming for team executives, runs Sunday and Monday of all-star week. Article content Article content The trade deadline looms at the end of the month. When to rest? Article content 'Circle Dec. 2, 2026, on your calendar,' one exec said this month. 'If you have one of these jobs and you ever wanted to go to New Zealand or something, that's the time to go.' Article content It was a joke. But it's deadly serious for the sport. Article content On Dec. 1, 2026, the collective bargaining agreement between MLB and the players association expires. The expectation throughout the sport: The owners will lock out the players then. That means general managers not only can't be in touch with members of their own teams, they can't be in touch with representatives of free agents. No calls. No texts. No deals. No trades. No business. Article content New Zealand would be kind of a bucket-list trip, wouldn't it? Article content This isn't to put a damper on Monday night's Home Run Derby or Tuesday night's All-Star Game, both held on the outskirts of Atlanta. It's to acknowledge that the threat of a work stoppage is very real and the people who run baseball operations departments already are considering how it will impact the way they do business. As in: Do I really want to commit three years to a player if one of those years could be all but wiped out? Article content That's not a doomsday scenario. Those discussions are happening in front offices right now. The last lockout produced the CBA that covered the 2022-26 seasons. It delayed the start of the 2022 season but cost zero major league games. The next one? Article content Article content 'Maybe I'm wrong,' one head of a baseball operations department said. 'But this one feels like it's going to be long.' Article content Another exec said, 'The owners are loaded for bear this time.' Article content What MLB wants without saying it directly: a salary cap. The Los Angeles Dodgers are spending $341 million on players this year, the New York Mets $332 million, according to Spotrac. The Vegas-bound Athletics are spending $77.1 million, the Miami Marlins $67.6 million. Not coincidentally, the Dodgers and Mets enter the all-star break in playoff position. The A's and the Marlins do not. Article content 'We do not have the kind of cost certainty, predictability and competitive balance mechanisms in our player comp system that the three other major professional sports have,' Commissioner Rob Manfred said at an investor event hosted last month by the Atlanta Braves, according to Sports Business Journal. 'That's just a fact.' Article content Two words he doesn't use: 'salary' and 'cap.' But you don't have to read between the lines to understand what he's saying.
CBC
14 hours ago
- Sport
- CBC
MLB, union could let players in 2028 Olympics during extended all-star break
Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred and players' union head Tony Clark say plans are moving ahead exploring the possibility of using major leaguers in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, a tournament that could be played on an extended all-star break. "I think it is an opportunity to market the game on a really global stage," Manfred told the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Tuesday. "Obviously the clubs are going to have to endorse this. I mean, this it's a big deal." MLB met with Los Angeles organizers Monday in Atlanta ahead of the 8 p.m. ET all-star game and Manfred said the Olympic officials were meeting with the Major League Baseball Players Association. "There's a lot of work that still needs to be done," Clark told the BBWAA in a separate session. "We do know players are interested in playing, whether it's for the Team USA or any number of other teams around the world. … There's just a lot of conversation that needs to be had sooner rather than later to see how viable this is, but we're hopeful that we can figure our way through it for the benefit of the game." The World Baseball Softball Confederation said Monday the baseball tournament will be played from July 15-20 at Dodger Stadium. MLB is considering whether it can interrupt its 2028 season to allow major leaguers to participate, which could necessitate changes to the sport's national television contracts. "They put out a schedule. They tell you it's not going to move. We'll see whether there's any movement on that," Manfred said. "It is possible to take it, to play the all-star game in its normal spot, have a single break that would be longer, obviously, but still play 162 games without bleeding into the middle of November. That is possible, OK? It would require significant accommodations, but it's possible." MLB did not allow players on 40-man rosters to participate in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, when Nippon Professional Baseball interrupted its season and Japan beat the U.S. 2-0 in the gold-medal game. "In the event that major league players are going to play, what does that mean and what does that look like?" Clark said. "And perhaps just as importantly, what does it mean for those players who aren't participating?
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Sport
- Washington Post
Without CJ Abrams and James Wood, Nats go quietly into the all-star break
MILWAUKEE — Roughly half an hour before the first pitch of their final game before the all-star break, the Washington Nationals announced shortstop CJ Abrams would be scratched from the lineup with minor right shoulder soreness, leaving the club without its leadoff hitter and 2024 all-star. Abrams's absence for Sunday's finale of a three-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers further compromised a lineup that already was without star slugger James Wood, who received the day off in advance of his participation in Monday night's Home Run Derby. Throw in a mostly crisp outing from Milwaukee ace Freddy Peralta, and the Nationals were left to sift through a fourth consecutive loss, an 8-1 defeat that was their eighth in nine games.
