IRVING, Texas -- Major League Baseball locked out its players early Thursday morning, certifying the game's first work stoppage in more than a quarter-century after months of talks yielded little progress toward a new labor contract.
The long-anticipated lockout, which the league told the players' union it would initiate once the previous collective bargaining agreement expired after 11:59 p.m. ET Wednesday, ends the transaction frenzy that led up to its imposition and sends the industry into a dark period with scant light in sight.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred expressed disappointment in the lockout but said he believes it is "the best mechanism to protect the 2022 season."
"Despite the league's best efforts to make a deal with the Players Association, we were unable to extend our 26 year-long history of labor peace and come to an agreement with the MLBPA before the current CBA expired," Manfred wrote in a prepared statement. "Therefore, we have been forced to commence a lockout of Major League players, effective at 12:01am ET on December 2."
During a lockout, which is a labor-relations tool used by management to keep employees from working until a deal is agreed upon, team officials and players cannot communicate in any way. Major league free agency and trades of players on 40-man rosters end immediately.
The major league portion of baseball's winter meetings have been canceled, though they will continue on the minor league side.
In three days of bargaining this week, the union and league exchanged proposals that, like previous ones, left the other side nonplussed and illustrated the chasm between the parties. The final discussions between leaders from both sides Wednesday afternoon lasted seven minutes.
The MLBPA also issued a statement early Thursday morning, calling the lockout "a dramatic measure, regardless of the timing."
"It was the owners' choice, plain and simple, specifically calculated to pressure Players into relinquishing rights and benefits, and abandoning good faith bargaining proposals that will benefit not Just Players, but the game and industry as a whole," the MLBPA said in its statement. "These tactics are not new. We have been here before, and Players have risen to the occasion time and again -- guided by a solidarity that has been forged over generations. We will do so again here.
"We remain determined to return to the field under the terms of a negotiated collective bargaining agreement that is fair to all parties, and provides fans with the best version of the game we all love."