MLB Lockout Looms: Players Face Financial Struggles Ahead

So what happens in a lockout? People, we say lockout all the time. It stops all trades and free agent signings, okay? So everything stops. The business of baseball stops. It's actually funny. Shohei Ohtani would actually lose $374,000 per day if there's a work stoppage. Just putting that out there. So you can make... That's gambling money. I was going to say. Well, listen, the way he was playing, maybe he was. Maybe people were onto something. any case um how long do you think that i think there is going to be a lockout i think that's inevitable how long do you think this is going to last totally depends on the players okay because i've in my opinion i think the players are going to cave because if i'm on the lower end if i'm the 700,000 guy if i'm the 5 million dollar guy there are more of those than there are the 700 thousand dollar guy the 500 million dollar guy and that's how we got here if you put together the The amount of players on the Reds, the Royals, the Pirates, the Rockies, these low-budget teams, those are the guys voting on whether or not I want to fight for Bryce Harper to make $500 million. Those are the guys fighting for I want to make sure Aaron Judge makes his $500 million. Oh, my little $2 million, my little $5 million. No, no, don't worry about me. those are the people who should have a who will have a larger vote at the end of the day because it's more of them and those are the guys who cannot afford to miss five weeks seven weeks eight months nine they can't afford that when those checks stop a lot of these guys live lavish lifestyle a lot of these guys because baseball money is not like football money it's like basketball money once you sign it you're gonna get it no matter what unless there's a lockout and i don't think that these guys plan for this a lot of guys spend this money because they come from uh you know impoverished backgrounds and this is the first opportunity that their family name has the money behind it and so they take care of people they put people up in houses you know they gotta buy Birkin bags you know these got a lot of these dudes are spending this money in places where they can't turn the faucet off Bryce Harper he got money on top of money yeah Kyle Schwarber you know the the Kyle Tuckers of the world these guys have Xander Bogaerts Xander Bogaerts got more money than he know what to do with Manny Machado got more money than he know what to do with Jackson Merrill too now Jackson Merrill Fernando Junior Jake Cronenworth uh you know Joe Musgrove all the they got a they got enough money but there is not enough of them to outweigh and overrule the guys underneath them right that's who this fight is about giving guys at the bottom more money and that's why i think you're gonna get the salary cap yeah i just you know people are saying well we're not gonna have a full 2027 season i i don't i think we're gonna i think we're gonna play in 2027 but i don't think it's gonna be like 100 it's not gonna be like oh we did it right after spring training let's start it's gonna be 162 games because major league baseball already proposed cutting the regular season schedule from 162 to 154 just last week um and also part of that proposal is higher seeds in the playoffs get to choose their opponents and division series would expand to seven games what do you think of that by the way i love that i love that i actually like it people like what how dare you you can't do that i love it can you imagine the dodgers be They're like, give me the Padres. Oh, I don't think they would, by the way. No, no, but I'm saying, can you imagine the Yankees being like, yeah, give me the Red Sox? Can you imagine the energy in that series if the Cubs can go, yeah, give me the Cardinals. Buddy, the fire that's coming to your town because, oh, this is what you wanted, huh? Come get it there. You wanted us. You wanted us. I think that's brilliant. But once this lockout ends, because all lockouts eventually end, they're going to need something. Like what happened after the steroid era with Chicks Dig the Long Ball and all this other stuff. They're going to need some type of gimmick, or they're going to need some type of adjustment to the game to bring fans back. Because fans always vacate when a lockout happens because they hate to see rich people fighting other rich people at a time where gas is $6, $10 in some places in Los Angeles, food is higher than it's ever been, inflation is sky high, and the last thing people want to see is rich guys arguing about millions upon millions of dollars yeah so uh just some some other hits here the dodgers paid more in luxury tax than some teams pay in total payroll um yes that has to end you know cap really doesn't guarantee parity either you know like a floor will matter more like you said earlier a floor will matter will matter way more um the floor is more important than the cap i agree with you like you said 17 teams over or under that that floor um i think that would raise the level of competitiveness too because more teams would be in the pool for players and you would know that you're getting more money from those teams it wouldn't be like oh why would i go to the pirates you know they're not going to pay I mean, well, now they can.