Major League Baseball is currently in a lockout and therefore the players cannot be training or rehabbing at team facilities for the time being. That hasn’t stopped the MLB players from finding a place to work out, however, as Britt Ghiroli of the Athletic reports that the MLBPA has reached an agreement with D-BAT Baseball and Softball Facilities to use their fields until the lockout comes to an end.
Because MLB’s owners have barred players from using club facilities during the lockout (whether they are injured or not) the MLBPA has recently finalized a partnership w/ D-BAT enabling all 40-man players & any FA with at least 1 day of service to use their facilities for free.
— Britt Ghiroli (@Britt_Ghiroli) January 12, 2022
Since the players are the ones working all year while the owners sit around and do nothing, that just means a stoppage of work for the players, GM’s and coaches. Teams cannot be in contact with any players, no free agents can sign, and no trades can be made. Injured players also cannot receive rehab or get the treatment that they need at any club facility. They are also barred from working out with team trainers on or off of the facilities.
This obviously will not work for a group of players that is motivated to get this season started on time and to make it an exciting one as they have fallen behind Football and Basketball in recent decades because of the slow pace of play and the underrepresentation of the game’s best players.
MLB has done a poor job of marketing its stars and they have another golden opportunity to mess it all up or actually do something great with it. Fernando Tatis Jr., Vladimir Guerrero Jr, Shohei Ohtani, and Jacob DeGrom should not be sitting at home right now–or at D-BAT for that matter–and that is something baseball must fix ASAP.
