Chris Taylor signs with the Dodgers, Marcus Stroman signs with the Cubs, and MLB goes into a lockout

Wednesday posed a deadline for Major League Baseball and the Players’ Association to come to terms on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The two sides met for seven minutes and called it a day. The 30 owners voted unanimously to force a work stoppage and we are now in a lockout.

This, of course, comes as no surprise. There has been significant strife between the players and owners over the past few years and it was very clear that the two sides wouldn’t reach common ground before the CBA expired.

So, long story short, everything is frozen now. Free agency has come to a halt, there won’t be any trades, the Winter Meetings and Rule 5 Draft will also be postponed indefinitely, and, if this stretches into January, which appears inevitable, the arbitration process will also get delayed.

Anyways, that’s why there was such a flurry of action over the past few days, one that we don’t usually see in a baseball off-season as things generally tend to move at a glacial pace. There was speculation that the Blue Jays might pull the trigger on a signing before the deadline, but that ultimately didn’t come to fruition.

One of the names that the Blue Jays were reportedly in the mix for was Chris Taylor, who wound up re-signing with the L.A. Dodgers ahead of the deadline.

This doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Taylor certainly would have been a nice fit for the Blue Jays, as he plays shortstop, second base, and the outfield, but it was difficult to imagine the Dodgers letting him go right after the team lost Corey Seager to the Texas Rangers in free agency.

Kris Byrant, the other free-agent infielder who had been mentioned as a Blue Jays target along with Taylor, didn’t sign a deal before the deadline. The same goes for Freddie Freeman, who has very surprisingly found himself in the Toronto rumour mill thanks to an Instagram post from Carlos Baerga.

Meanwhile, the other player to ink a deal on the eve of the lockout was our old friend, Marcus Stroman. The Chicago Cubs and Stroman agreed to a three-year deal worth $71,000,000 with an opt-out after the second year. This could work out favourably for Stroman if he pitches well in those first two seasons, but it’s well below the $110,000,000 he was projected to get by MLB Trade Rumours.