Rob Manfred fears a labor dispute like the one in 1994

For several years now, the winter of 2026 has been a source of concern in the baseball world. We know that the collective bargaining agreement between MLB and the Players Association will expire then… and we've been expecting heated negotiations for quite some time.

Watching the Dodgers dominate in recent years has created a strong sense of injustice throughout the baseball world, and this is expected to complicate the upcoming negotiations.

Last week, both sides made their opening offers. Unsurprisingly, MLB proposed a salary cap… and the players, of course, want nothing to do with that.

It's still early, of course, but the threat of a labor dispute is very, very real. And Rob Manfred was asked about it.

And the commissioner was candid: he fears another labor dispute like the one in 1994 (which lasted until April 1995).

We know that in Montreal, 1994 is remembered as the year the labor dispute ruined the Expos' chances of winning the World Series. But it's important to remember that beyond all that, the players' strike that year was one of the biggest labor disputes in recent professional sports history.

In addition to the 1994 season being canceled, the start of the 1995 season was also delayed. It wasn't ideal.

And a labor dispute this year, in reality, would also be pretty catastrophic. The league has been riding an incredible wave of momentum for a while now, driven in particular by the recent editions of the World Classic and its young stars.

The 2021-22 lockout didn't impact regular-season games, but the atmosphere feels much more tense today than it did five years ago. And increasingly, there are reasons to believe a longer conflict is on the horizon in the coming months, as Commissioner Manfred has suggested.

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