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Good morning baseball fans!
As we approach the beginning of the season, we’re going to be doing some questions for y’all about your thoughts about the San Francisco Giants and baseball in general!
I had to take a couple of days off because Plague-ageddon 2026 finally got me this week. But going back to the theme of the week (the potential work stoppage after the upcoming season), today’s question is: What would be the cost of a work stoppage?
I don’t necessarily mean that financially, more in the sense of what would it cost the team, players, fans, etc. So for me, I would say that the cost would be most heavily felt by the players themselves. We saw what happened during and after the lockout in 2021/2022.
Players got signed really late, Spring Training was delayed, and that leads to players not getting as much time to ramp up before the season. This can lead to poorer quality performances, sure; but it can also lead to injuries. And both can have a large impact on the players’ future.
For the fans, it absolutely sucks to not have baseball to watch. For the front office and coaching staff, it hinders their ability to assess and plan for the team they are going to end up having, so I have sympathy there as well. And sure, from the owners’ perspective they want butts in seats with beers in hands and they take the most direct financial hit if the season gets delayed. But the players are the ones whose future livelihoods are on the line.
Which is part of why I get so frustrated when folks blame the players for these things. They are in the worst position to wait out any kind of delay in negotiations or lockout implemented by the owners because they are the ones most heavily, directly, and immediately impacted by it. And unless the stoppage comes from them deciding to implement a strike, they don’t really have a lot of say in any of it.
What would be the cost of a work stoppage?