Major League Baseball plunged into its first work stoppage in a quarter-century when the sports collective bargaining agreement expired Wednesday night and owners immediately locked out players in a move that threatens spring training and opening day.

The strategy, managements equivalent of a strike under federal labor law, ended the sports labor peace after 9,740 days over 26 1/2 years.

Teams decided to force the long-anticipated confrontation during an offseason rather than risk players walking out during the summer, as they did in 1994. Players and owners had successfully reached four consecutive agreements without a work stoppage, but they have been accelerating toward a clash for more than two years.

We believe that an offseason lockout is the best mechanism to protect the 2022 season, baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred wrote in a letter to fans . We hope that the lockout will jumpstart the negotiations and get us to an agreement that will allow the season to start on time. This defensive lockout was necessary because the players associations vision for Major League Baseball would threaten the ability of most teams to be competitive.