The word “lockout” is enough to give PTSD to us hockey fans. It’s what baseball fans are almost expecting after this season as Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement with it’s players will expire in December of this year. This all got a bit more complicated as the Major League Baseball Players Association saw its executive director Tony Clark resign on Tuesday.
Poised to replace him (though an official move has yet to be made) is the union’s deputy executive director Bruce Meyer. If that name sounds more than slightly familiar, it might be because Meyer previously worked as senior director of collective bargaining, policy and legal with the NHL Players Association starting in 2016. He left to take his current position with the MLBPA in 2022.
Having union officials go between league players association is nothing new. Donald Fehr was at the helm of the MLBPA during their infamous lockout that cancelled the 1994 World Series as well as the NHL's 2012-2013 lockout that effectively cut that season almost in half. The NHLPA took a different turn by hiring former Boston mayor and United States Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh in February 2023.
Another similarity is that the MLB is facing potentially the same problem that the NHL faced during that cancelled season: the implementation of a salary cap. Talk about “market conditions” for different NHL teams usually centers around having Canadian and American markets, although there is a good bit of parity. Meanwhile the MLB sees some teams spend like drunken sailors while other teams with frugal owners spend as little as possible.
That makes the imparity and market imbalance that MLB faces in 2026 worse than the NHL of the early 2000’s. The pre salary cap Gary Bettman era NHL was the only North American professional sports league without a salary cap or luxury tax (teams paying the league for exceeding a certain payroll limit). MLB currently has a luxury tax, so to outsiders wouldn’t it seem they are more prepared for the implementation of a salary cap than the NHL was those many years ago? An incredibly interesting stat found that pre salary cap NHL teams spent 75% of their revenue on player salaries while that current amount in current day MLB is between 44%-47%.
MLB players remain adamantly against it and now it might be Bruce Meyer’s job to deal with. Even if Meyer comes with experience from the NHLPA it was during a time of relative labor peace for the league. The discussions to resume play in the “NHL bubble” to end the 2019-2020 season were part of his watch, but so was good faith and speedy CBA discussions.
MLB’s current state of player relations is in stark contrast with the NHL. Walsh and Bettman are presiding over an almost unprecedented cooperation between the league and NHLPA since Walsh joined in 2022. The players are happy because they have more power than ever, and player engagement with the union is at high levels
Is Meyer battle tested enough from his time at the NHL? If his NHLPA resume is any indication than baseball should expect a steadying force. The MLBPA is also under investigation for how it used its funds. The NHLPA has been under notable investigations before, but nothing during Meyer’s tenure.