Photo Credit: Threads
It was a moment worth savoring. The New York Yankees wrapped up their spring slate last week with an exhibition series against the Cubs at Sloan Park in Mesa, their first games played in Arizona since 1951, when they briefly called Phoenix home after swapping training locations with the New York Giants. Seventy-five years is a long time between visits, and the symbolism felt almost poetic, a piece of baseball history bookending what has been a wonderful 2026 Cactus League season.
The problem is that it may also be bookending the last one for a while.
A lockout at the end of the 2026 season is widely considered a near-certainty. The current CBA expires at 11:59 p.m. on December 1, 2026, and the sides appear to be far apart on fundamental economic issues. The biggest flashpoint is the owners’ push for a salary cap, which the players’ union has consistently and forcefully opposed, calling it bad for players on multiple levels. With both sides already in a public standoff and reports of owners prepared to take an aggressive posture even at the risk of impacting the 2027 season, the informal deadline for potentially losing spring training games falls in early to mid-March 2027. That means the Cactus League could simply not happen.
Photo Credit: ESPN
For Arizona, that prospect is genuinely alarming. The 2025 Cactus League season generated an estimated $764 million in economic impact for the state, according to Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business, creating more than 6,000 jobs and nearly $379 million in visitor spending. And two-thirds of out-of-state patrons surveyed said spring training was the sole or primary reason they visited Arizona, meaning this is not tourist money that gets redirected to golf resorts or Sedona day trips. It simply disappears. The 2022 lockout delivered a painful preview. Communities that had invested hundreds of millions in taxpayer-funded ballparks watched the revenues dry up while MLB offered little in the way of recognition or relief.
The Cactus League has had four straight years of attendance increases since those disruptions and was nearly back to pre-pandemic levels heading into this spring. It would be a bitter irony to lose that momentum to another labor fight.
So as the Yankees pack up and head back east, and the Cactus League wraps up another season of sun-soaked baseball, there’s a bittersweet quality to it all. The games were great. The crowds were back. And the hope, for fans, for businesses, and for the communities that have built their springs around this sport, is that the owners and players find enough common ground to make sure 2027 looks the same. Baseball has always found a way back. Here’s hoping it doesn’t take too long this time.