It is something that no baseball fan wants to think about — but it could become reality come December 2026. The current MLB-MLBPA collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is set to expire after the conclusion of the 2026 campaign, and here’s when it’s set to happen.

The Clock

As you can see, the collective bargaining agreement is set to expire on December 1. While there is a chance of things getting resolved before then, all bets are off.

Why is a lockout potentially happening?

For several reasons.

One, anytime the CBA expires, it becomes customary for the owners to lock out the players. It is simply a procedural labor move designed to ensure that players don't strike while a new CBA is being negotiated. This happened in 1994, which resulted in the cancellation of the rest of the regular season in August of that season, plus the playoffs.

Two, the two sides are negotiating on a wide range of topics, many of which are sore spots for both.

Among the issues at play are a salary cap implementation and shortening the MLB Draft, removing high school players from the draft pool, collectively sharing all regional sports network (RSN) revenue, as well as contract length limits, among other issues.

Now, just because a lockout happens does not mean games will be lost. However, the environment has changed drastically since the end of the 2021 season, when the last lockout took place.

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