Major League Baseball will enforce a lockout, marking the first work stoppage for the first time in over 25 years.

The enforcement by the league will largely effect low salary players and stadium workers.

The league’s 30 controlling owners voted unanimously to institute a lockout late Wednesday.   

“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’ association’s vision for Major League Baseball would threaten the ability of most teams to be competitive.”  

The lockout, which is expected to begin Thursday, has loomed over players and workers since 2016, but many believe the move was not justified.  

“These tactics are not new,” the statement by the from the Major League Baseball Players Association read. “We have been here before, and Players have risen to the occasion time and again—guided by a solidarity that has been forged over generations. We will do so again here.”  

The lockout will freeze signings, cancel next week’s annual winter meetings in Orlando, Florida, prevent players from using team facilities and cause stadium and essential workers to lose out on paychecks.  

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Other alarming issues leading to the lockout include the luxury tax, free agency, a salary scale, playoff expansion, and several rule changes.  

The players’ union is also upset over a declining average salary, forgotten middle-class players pushed by teams centralizing payroll on the large contracts and offloading veterans in favor of cheaper and younger players, especially tanking teams.  

“We offered to establish a minimum payroll for all clubs to meet for the first time in baseball history; to allow the majority of players to reach free agency earlier through an age-based system that would eliminate any claims of service time manipulation; and to increase compensation for all young players,” Manfred wrote. “When negotiations lacked momentum, we tried to create some by offering to accept the universal designated hitter, to create a new draft system using a lottery similar to other leagues.” 

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