Snyder's Soapbox: Stop with the MLB lockout doom and gloom; both sides have too much to lose

Too many people seem convinced there won't be a 2027 MLB season Sep 1, 2026 at 10:50 am ET • 2 min read Welcome to Snyder's Soapbox! Here, I pontificate about matters related to Major League Baseball on a weekly basis. Some of the topics will be pressing matters, some might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and most will be somewhere in between. The good thing about this website is that it's free, and you are allowed to click away. If you stay, you'll get smarter, though. That's a money-back guarantee. Let's get to it.You've surely seen it: the MLB lockout doomerism. It's far too common, and there's really no good reason for it. For example, last weekend, MLB announced that the 2027 Little League Classic would be between the Cubs and Blue Jays. I made the mistake of scrolling through comments online and the overwhelming majority either insinuated there wouldn't be a 2027 season or straight up just said it. These comments come from baseball fans who surely want there to be a season, so what's with all the negativity? Well, unfortunately, some of it has to do with the propaganda the league has splashed over the place so far this season, which is pretty annoying. Other than that, my hunch is some misguided salary cap fans believe the owners will refuse to sign a deal without a salary cap and the players will refuse to sign a deal with one -- and both sides will be so hardcore in their stances that it'll not only bleed into the regular season but in fact cancel the entire thing. And there's just no basis for this. Last time around, the owners decided to go with a "defensive lockout" and lock the MLBPA out on Dec. 2, 2021. The two sides had a pretty public and ugly fight for months. And then they came to an agreement on March 10. The season was delayed roughly a week and a half, and we still saw a full 162-game season.Mark my words: It'll be nearly the same thing next year. You'll see. Even if I'm wrong, it's ludicrous to me to believe that both sides will throw away so much money in a fight over more money that they'd miss the entire season. The league is absolutely raking it in right now. There are so many other entertainment options out there these days that refusing to play in this climate due to a fight between what fans like to call "millionaires vs. billionaires" that the league might never recover. Both sides know this. They are not stupid enough to lose a significant chunk of games. MLB hasn't missed games due to a labor fight since 1994. Commissioner Rob Manfred doesn't want his legacy to include the league missing games and certainly won't allow a canceled season. The players have a finite shelf life and would be risking substantial earning power with a lost season. Remember how much the owners cried poor ("biblical losses!") without fans attending games during the 2020 COVID season? You think they wanna mess with their earning machine? I say we see no fewer than 140 games per team next year, and I'll stick with 162 as my official prediction. Even if I might end up being wrong -- yes, it happens -- can we settle down with all the doom and gloom? It's not only unproductive, but it's just a bad, whiny look. Cut it out. In the words of the immortal Han Solo, "let's keep a little optimism around here."