Wage bill: “I wouldn’t be surprised if the owners back down.”

The labor dispute looming over Major League Baseball (in a year's time) is not exactly reassuring for fans who just want to watch baseball.

Even the players' boss, Bruce Meyer (new executive director of the Players Association), believes that Rob Manfred and the team owners will trigger a lockout.

It looks like a lockout is very likely to occur in MLB this December. https://t.co/4At7QEn5qb pic.twitter.com/3SW0xMYzaz

— theScore (@theScore) March 1, 2026

But how short will the season be in 2027?

In fact, Evan Drellich, who covers baseball for The Athletic, thinks it's possible that at some point, owners will cave and not impose a cap.

How would that be possible?

If Rob Manfred, whose job is to represent the shareholders of the 30 teams, tells his group that he has tried everything but that it won't be possible, will the owners accept that reality? It's possible, according to the journalist.

“Part of (Rob Manfred's) job is to demonstrate to them that he tried. It wouldn't surprise me if at some point, the owners backed off of a cap.”@EvanDrellich explained the dynamics of the looming MLB lockout and how the league's owners could handle pursuing a salary cap. pic.twitter.com/gyciNNAide

— 104.3 The Score (@thescorechicago) March 3, 2026

Why would Manfred do that? The main question is, what are the personal goals of the commissioner, whose departure in 2029 has already been announced?

Does the commissioner absolutely want to stay in baseball—at any cost? If so, it's better to please the owners and push hard.

But in reality, if he wants to preserve his legacy as a commissioner who did not cause his sport to miss games due to a lockout (in 2020, it was officially due to the pandemic) during his tenure, that changes the game.

Think about it.

Manfred has grown the sport and modernized baseball with many controversial rules. Does he want to be remembered for that, or does he want to be the one who caused another work stoppage?

Here's a little hope for the 2027 season, which is shaping up to be… unpleasant. But maybe the commissioner will be a shark and won't give a damn about any of this… and that's why we need to ask ourselves what his personal goals are.

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