Everything to Know about the MLB Lockout | Sources Tell Jeff Passan

In this episode of Sources Tell Jeff Passan, Jeff asked all 30 MLB owners for an interview about baseball's looming labor war and lockout. He got 30 nos. So he answers the biggest questions himself — the ones ownership won't touch on the record.

MLB is pushing for its first salary cap in over 30 years, and the MLBPA has called the league's proposal "the worst system for players in any of the major sports — and it's not close." With the CBA set to expire and a lockout looking more likely by the week, Jeff breaks down what a cap would actually fix, who benefits, and why a full season could disappear in 2027 the way one did in hockey in 2004-05.

Along the way: a hard look at the Dodgers' payroll and luxury tax spending compared to the rest of the league, the legal nuclear options both sides are sitting on, the ghost of 1994, and how close baseball is to a shutdown nobody in charge wants to talk about.

Five questions. Zero owners willing to answer them. One very real chance the game stops.

0:00 Welcome to Sources Tell Jeff Passan
0:13 Baseball’s looming lockout
02:28 Emails to all 30 owners, no one wants to talk
07:08 Why the owners won't talk on the record
08:36 Past MLB labor wars
10:55 How Sonia Sotomayor saved baseball in 1995
14:56 What will a salary cap actually fix?
20:17 Why a cap "buys the ability to screw up" for big-market teams
20:17 Why is this labor's problem to help solve?
26:59 Is the problem at the top, where owners are spending — or at the bottom, where they aren't?
28:34 Why is a salary cap necessary to share TV revenue?
32:22 MLB's top-heavy pay structure vs. the NFL, NBA, and NHL
34:30 How long is everyone willing to wait?
35:30 Why an entire season really be canceled in 2027
42:00 What it would take to get a deal done

✔️ .espn.com/

#ESPN #MLB