Cardinals: MLB players troll league after removing player pictures following lockout

MLB players (no Cardinals yet) are trolling the league after removing player pictures on the MLB.com website following the lockout.

It had not been more than a minute after Major League Baseball officially locked out it’s players when they removed each player’s image from their website. And it didn’t take long for the players to fight back and troll MLB.

On Thursday morning, players began posting the images that appeared on MLB.com – generic, faceless outlines of faces – as their profile pictures on Twitter. New York Yankees pitcher Jameson Taillon did it. San Diego Padres pitcher Joe Musgrove did as well. Same for New York Mets pitcher Trevor Williams. There are other players who have done this – none on the St. Louis Cardinals – but at the current rate players are changing their profile pictures, it shouldn’t be too long until that changes.

Now, it should be noted that MLB is not allowed to use any player’s name, picture or list anything about them in any capacity on their websites. But the players have used this to unify them as a group as the MLBPA and MLB begin negotiations on the upcoming Collective Bargaining Agreement.

However, Craig Calcaterra, a respected baseball writer, said that “there is nothing stopping MLB from providing editorial/information data, like it always has, on its news site. A story about a player signing or a database with player statistics is not a matter of NIL laws.”

Calcaterra added: “Masterstroke by MLB to give players a rallying/mocking point that emphasizes the paramount importance of the players to the whole enterprise mere minutes after imposing a lockout. A team of MLBPA PR people could not have written it up any better.”

Bingo.

It’s why more players, including on the Cardinals, are likely going to continue to change their pictures to the faceless photos that now appear on MLB.com. It’s also a sign of just how far the two sides are from completing a CBA deal – and why we should get ready for a long, strenuous winter of labor negotiations.

Buckle up.