Christian Yelich and the Milwaukee Brewers won’t remotely think about the 2027 MLB season right now after winning the franchise’s first-ever World Series.
However, this is a pivotal offseason for baseball, as the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) ends on Dec. 1 at 11:59 p.m.
Until a new CBA is agreed upon, there will be no MLB season in 2027.
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Will that actually happen? It’s a possibility, but when asked if he’s optimistic about the season starting on time, Yelich gave the glass-half-full approach.
“Yeah. You know, that’s the goal, obviously,” he told OutKick before celebrating once more with Brewers fans, this time during a victory “shift” at Raising Cane’s in Greendale, Wisconsin. “It’s going to be an interesting offseason here. We’ll just see what happens.
“But yeah, I think that would be awesome. I think that’s what everybody’s hoping for.”
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Yelich told the Associated Press prior to the Brewers clinching the title in Game 5 that he thinks the “game’s in a great spot right now,” and it would be “a shame if we miss time.”
But that’s the reality of the situation, which Yelich knows all about after the last CBA was agreed upon in March 2022. There was a point throughout those winter months when it looked like neither side – the owners and players – would budge on their demands. The deal was eventually done, but weeks of spring training were missed before the 2022 regular season started on April 7 rather than March 31.
When that happened, teams didn’t stop inking players to new contracts, shelling out a collective billion-plus in salaries, with deals including the Minnesota Twins’ Byron Buxton, Texas Rangers’Corey Seager and Toronto Blue Jays’ Kevin Gausman. This year, top free agents include Tarik Skubal, Freddy Peralta, Seiya Suzuki and Michael King, among others.
Players definitely want clubs to continue spending money, as that is the crux of the biggest debate on the table between the two sides. For the owners, a salary and floor cap proposal is what they want to cut down the disparity found in payrolls across the league.
On the flip side, the players have viewed a salary cap and floor as a non-starter, believing instead that there should be expanded free agency and salary arbitration rights for themselves, along with a bigger league minimum salary. They’ve also proposed having a tax for teams who fail to keep payrolls at a certain floor, basically promoting spending overall.
Yelich was just part of a Brewers team that won 103 regular-season games and were middle of the pack in payroll. Their opponent, the Tampa Bay Rays, had a bottom-three payroll and had the best record in the American League this season.
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MLB is the only major pro sports league in the U.S. without a salary cap, with the NFL, NBA and NHL implementing them. In 2022, differences were amended, but some believe this time around will be much harder.
The MLBPA also has a change in leadership, with Tony Clark forced out and Bruce Meyer, a former All-Star infielder, taking over. He was the one who led the players’ negotiation last time around, so he has the prowess to fight hard for what his side wants. At the same time, owners and commissioner Rob Manfred seem steadfast in their beliefs.
When Dec. 2 rolls around, we’ll know for certain if a lockout is in place, but the real question is whether it will persist through the start of the regular season.
As Yelich said, he feels everyone wants baseball to start on time, but if things get ugly at the negotiating table, players might be seeing a situation like 1994.