Today, Sean Fitzgerald will be dissecting the current State of MLB.

It’s been an interesting year in Major League Baseball, specifically in the American League, where heading into July, only five teams were above the .500 mark and one of those teams were … The Chicago White Sox, a team who two years ago won a grand total of 41 games.

The last few seasons have seen major rule changes to impact the pace of play. This year, the MLB instituted an automatic ball-strike, or abs, challenge system, where teams could challenge pitches they thought were called wrong by the umpire. Each team gets two challenges per game through nine innings (one in extra innings), and if they win their challenge, they retain it.

This year also saw the introduction of MLB’s new media rights deal, which see’s Netflix take over Opening Night and the Home Run Derby, NBC acquiring Sunday Night Baseball and the Wild Card Round from ESPN to broadcast MLB for the first time since 2000 (excluding Peacock’s return in 2022).

The elephant in the room is the impending collective bargaining agreement that is set to expire following the 2026 MLB season. There is a push from owners to implement a salary floor and a salary cap, something players have vehemently pushed back against, setting up a potential lockout and the possibility of baseball not being played in 2027, especially if the World Series is once again won by the Los Angeles Dodgers for the third straight year, the team who currently has the best record in the sport.