In my last article, I presented two reasons I’m concerned that a work stoppage could endanger the 2027 MLB season. I cited, first, the seeming inevitability of a lockout, indications that ownership is prepared to lose games, and, second, my skepticism of the “cooler heads will prevail” assumptions. I’ll present a couple other causes for concern here but end, cautiously, on a kind-of hopeful note.

3. The public outreach

Recently I was a guest on Vince Genarro’s excellent show on SiriusXM (they don’t even give me a free subscription for these plugs), Baseball SABR Style. Off-mike, we talked about the outlook for these negotiations. Now, Vince and I are old enough to have lived through every work stoppage. (Well, not the 1912 one-day strike by the Tigers. Make that every MLBPA-era work stoppage.) Neither of us recall the volume of dueling press releases by MLB and the union, let alone the ads MLB runs on its broadcasts.