Major League Baseball has circulated a 34-page memo to team owners and executives spelling out how clubs must operate if a lockout begins, according to Evan Drellich of The Athletic. Dan Halem, second-in-command to commissioner Rob Manfred, shared the confidential document on Wednesday, and a work stoppage is anticipated to begin Dec. 2.
The Main Development
The MLB lockout memo instructs teams to make no new trades or signings involving players on 40-man rosters once a stoppage takes effect. It also tells team officials to avoid player interactions “to the greatest extent possible.” Officials may be “cordial” in public settings, the memo says, but they cannot discuss business with players, even at personal events such as weddings.
The document also addresses agent communications, stating the scope of those conversations must be “monitored and strictly controlled” to make sure no talks touch on players who hold 40-man roster spots.
Halem wrote in the memo: “Our commitment has been and remains to exhaust every realistic option to achieve our goal of reaching an agreement with the Players Association. However, clubs need to be prepared for the possibility that an agreement will not be reached by then and the clubs are left with no realistic alternative but to implement a lockout of major league players.”
What It Means
Beyond the trade and contact freezes, the memo covers smaller operational details that signal how thoroughly MLB wants clubs prepared. Teams are told to avoid sending players holiday cards during a stoppage, and player images and videos must be “scrubbed” from official team and league websites. The specificity, down to holiday cards, shows the league is treating a potential lockout as an operational plan rather than a vague contingency.
Context
Similar procedures were used during the 2021-22 lockout, according to the report. The reuse of that playbook suggests MLB is drawing directly on its prior work stoppage rather than building a new framework from scratch for this round of labor planning.
What’s Next
The lockout is anticipated to begin Dec. 2, per the memo obtained by The Athletic. No statement from the MLB Players Association regarding the memo has surfaced, and the league’s quoted statement emphasizes that clubs remain committed to reaching an agreement before that date.
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