How baseball's looming lockout led to Brandon Woodruff's return to Milwaukee

The day of reckoning is coming in Major League Baseball, and most teams and players appear ready to take any and all necessary measures to insulate themselves from the pain that's on the horizon.

The oft-discussed 2027 lockout hovers over everything like a plague. There is simply no escaping the economic tide-shift that will emerge from what is sure to be long, drawn-out negotiations that appear all but guaranteed to delay (or eliminate part of) the 2027 MLB season.

Ignoring the implications that'll have on the fans themselves -- the millionaires vs. billionaires discussion is going to drown out quite a lot of other baseball noise -- it's important to note that teams need to prepare their payrolls and spending habits now for whatever rules and regulations may exist once the new Collective Bargaining Agreement is finally ratified.

It's for that reason, the fear of what the lockout will do to the spending habits of the sport, that Milwaukee Brewers' pitcher Brandon Woodruff and a record three other players accepted the qualifying offer on Nov. 18.

Brandon Woodruff's QO decision almost certainly influenced by impending MLB lockout

If you've been paying attention to the Chicago Cubs this offseason, you'll know they've made a series of bizarre, cost-cutting moves that appear antithetical to their win-now roster.

Those decisions, including their choice to offer Shota Imanaga a qualifying offer after declining his three-year team option, have been heavily influenced by the lockout. Like most teams, the Cubs aren't operating with any certainty as to what the future economic parameters of baseball will look like.

Hence, they were happy to turn Imanaga's three-year deal into a one-year one via the QO, which is a phenomenon that will be repeated many times over this winter. Teams more than ever will favor one-year deals, even at inflated salaries, so as to possess clean books heading into next year's CBA negotiations.

Flip this story to a player's perspective, and it's obvious why Woodruff, Imanaga, Gleyber Torres, and Trent Grisham all willingly took the one-year, $22.05 million qualifying offer instead of testing the open market. Those players know teams won't be looking to hand out multi-year deals this offseason, and because rejecting the QO causes a player to get attached to draft-pick compensation, there were really good odds that none of that quartet, despite their talent, could beat the roughly $22 million value in free agency.

That's a sad revelation that drags down an otherwise happy reunion in Milwaukee. But, facing an economic armageddon, Woodruff probably won't be complaining about securing his financial future while remaining with the Brewers.