NEW YORK, N.Y. — Baseball’s offseason has barely begun, and the clock is already running. Free agents may start signing with new clubs at 5 p.m. Eastern on Monday, leaving roughly four weeks before the sport’s labor contract runs out on Dec. 1 and owners are widely expected to shut down player business.
The Milwaukee Brewers closed out the Tampa Bay Rays this week for the first championship in franchise history, the first World Series in 35 years between two of the game’s lowest-spending clubs. That matchup has become a talking point on both sides of the bargaining table.
Owners want a salary cap, arguing it would narrow the gap between big and small markets. Their opening plan would set the 2027 cap at $245.3 million, a figure that would force eight high-payroll clubs, among them the Dodgers, Mets, Yankees and Phillies, to shed a combined $578 million. The league has also floated a shorter regular season with a weekly off day and more playoff games, all tied to players accepting a cap. The players union has called a cap a non-starter.
A lockout would freeze free-agent signings, trades and players’ access to team facilities. The last one, after the 2021 season, lasted 99 days and pushed back the 2022 opener by a week. No games have been lost to a work stoppage since the 1994-95 strike.
Teams are moving fast in the meantime. By midday Friday, 155 players had officially become free agents. Clubs must decide on one-year qualifying offers, worth $23.15 million this winter, by Monday, and players have until Nov. 9 to respond.
Several decisions are already in. Atlanta picked up options on Ronald Acuña Jr. and Ozzie Albies, Miami kept pitcher Sandy Alcantara, and San Diego right-hander Michael King turned down his player option to test the market.
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