Thanks to the pending expiration of the MLB-MLBPA collective bargaining agreement in 2026, there’s a lot of conversations about lockouts. But what exactly is a lockout? And what about a players’ strike? Here’s an explainer on both, plus a gloss-over of MLB’s history with both lockouts and strikes.
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What is a lockout?
A lockout is triggered when MLB teams lock out players from official team activities and games.
This is traditionally triggered when a previously-existing collective bargaining agreement (CBA) expires, to avoid a strike.
What is a strike?
A strike is when MLB players, usually led by the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), leave their responsibilities as players to bargain for better conditions under a collective bargaining agreement.
Past strikes have occurred during lapses in collective bargaining agreements, when the players and teams temporarily agree to continue the existing terms of the past CBA while in negotiations for a new one.
The history of MLB strikes
Most of Major League Baseball’s labor stoppages have come by way of strikes — and not lockouts. The first major work stoppage came in 1972, four years after both the league and players’ association agreed on the first-ever collective bargaining agreement.
The first strike lasted from April 1 through April 12 of that season. The strike was a successful one for the players, even though the games lost in that stretch were not made up, and those individuals didn’t receive pay. However, it did end with an increase to the pension fund and gave players the right of arbitration.
A second, shorter strike, which focused on free agency, took place in April 1980. That ended with the agreement on a four-year CBA, and a promise that the issue of free agency would be addressed in 1981.
That, however, did not get resolved. What was at issue was that team owners were unhappy with how free agency was implemented in the 1970s (we’ll get to how that happened later on, in the lockouts section). When free agency was first implemented into the CBA, it only allowed players with six or more years of free agency to become eligible.
Additionally, eligble free agents could only negotiate with 12 teams other than their previous club. The 12 teams were determined by a rights draft.
Teams wanted more compensation for losing players. More specifically, teams wanted to be able to sign a player from the lost player’s new team as compensation. After a two-month strike, which led to a split season in 1981, a new agreement was agreed upon.
Free agent compensation was added with a peculiar twist. Teams that lost a Type A free agent could add another player from any team eligible to sign a Type A free agent. It led to bizarre moves. Perhaps most notably, the White Sox added pitcher Tom Seaver from the Mets after Chicago lost Dennis Lamp to the Blue Jays.
A two-day strike in August 1985 came four years after the 1981 one. At heart of the 1985 one was the players’ refusal to acquiesce to owner demands to arbitration increase limits. The two sides, though, came to an agreement to push the salary arbitration eligiblity requirement from two years to three years.
The last, and perhaps most consequential strike, came in 1994. MLB players went on strike in August 1994 after the season went on with the existence of a CBA. At heart of that strike was the owners’ push to implement a salary cap. That strike ultimately led to the cancellation of the playoffs and 1994 World Series.
Many teams were planning on staging games with replacements in 1995, as the two sides didn’t come to an agreement come the spring of the following year. However, a court injunction prevented that from being implemented.
Instead, the U.S. District Court in Southern New York declared that the 1995 and 1996 MLB seasons must be contested under the terms of the previous CBA. That ended the last players’ lockout in 1995.
The history of MLB lockouts
The first lockout came in 1973, an abbreviated one that lasted only several days. It ended on an agreement to increase the pension fund & the minimum salary for MLB players.
However, three years later, the league locked out the players after the Seitz decision. The Seitz decision declared Dave McNally and Andy Messersmith free agents. MLB appealed the decision but lost in court.
That decision opened up a Pandora’s box, as far as the owners were concerned. All a player had to do was sit out one season, voiding a renewal through the reserve clause, to be declared a free agent. Thus, the owners locked out the players to force the players to accept desired terms.
This plan didn’t work, as commissioner Bowie Kuhn ended the lockout. The owners and players came to an agreement that year to limit free agency to players who had achieved six years of service time. It came with initial limits. Players could only file once every five years, and were limited to negotiate with 12 teams other than their own.
A lockout was triggered in 1990. Leading up to that lockout, owners lost several arbitration cases due to collusion, as players accused the owners of conspiring with one another to limit salaries.
No games were lost to the 1990 lockout. It also allowed the top 17% of players within two to three years of service time to become eligible for arbitration.
The last lockout in MLB history, as of January 2026, was from December 2021 through March 2022. That labor dispute involved a myriad of issues. Major League Baseball sought to lower the first luxury tax threshold below $190MM. Additionally, an expanded playoff, the DH rule, increased minimum salaries, and MLB Draft order changes were among the issues.
Although the lockout ran through the start of Spring Training, no games were lost.
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