So what's the end game for MLB? They are apparently willing to wait it out, but for how long? It is hard for to me to imagine they'd sacrifice a season, but perhaps I am unclear on how they view the stakes. Is there a single essential goal they are locking out to achieve? I could guess, but why not ask somebody who might actually know...
My read on the situation.
I don't think the MLB is willing to wait it out as much as you think, based on the actions they are taking. They are tossing PR move after PR move out to make the MLBPA look bad and get them to blink first in the eye of public discourse in such a short span because they know in a few weeks PR moves from either side will make public discourse mad at everyone, not just one side. They're running out of time for those kind of moves and that's why they pulled out the mediator hail mary, IMO.
And they know they're running out of time because this truly is the first time the players union has the ammo, by the way of pooled resources for their players protected by the union that they undertook about 5 years ago and starting gathering, to be able to go into the season and miss games and still keep the low guys on the totem pole who haven't made anything to this point happy while they aren't getting paid for playing. Why the MLBPA hasn't blinked yet and hasn't compromised as much as quickly as they have in negotiations past.
The end game for the MLB/ownership group has not changed. They want the profit sharing system rigged in their favor, as it was in the last CBA, a CBA that saw revenues increase by almost 80% and player salaries increase by 12% in comparison over that timeframe. They don't want to give that up, they don't want to change the revenue sharing apparatus, they don't want to discuss the future of MLB broadcasts and the monopoly on revenues that will create for MLB teams/ownership groups.
They don't care about the universal DH, or draft lottos to help avoid tanking, or bonus money to pre-arb players, or raising the league minimum salary, or a salary floor, or the CBT thresholds, or service time manipulation fixes. They care about how they make the most money. That's always the end game for the business side of sports, which the owners are.
They know the stakes, they know what is at risk (so do the players). I've had a lot of conversations with different people from different areas of the game touching on things they fear should the season be delayed. Everyone close to the game knows the potential repercussions coming.
