IRVING, Texas — For the first time in nearly three decades, Major League Baseball is in a work stoppage.
After the owners of M.L.B.’s 30 clubs and the players failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement before the expiration of the previous five-year pact at 11:59 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, the league enacted a lockout. It was the latest chapter in fraught labor relations between the sides in recent years.
While a lockout is not a requirement, the move is the owners’ cudgel and it has previously been used by owners in the four major men’s North American professional sports leagues in similar instances.