Owners don't want to change what's working right now. Player's union wants younger and more inexperienced players to get more money, arbitration after only two years instead of three, free agency after five years instead of six. Manfred says "bad for the sport, bad for the fans, and bad for competitive balance".
I'm surprised you are shocked over the lockout. A year ago most fans and even non fans were aware of the likelihood of a lockout as soon as the present bargaining agreement ended. This was expected and fit in with the rash of free agents signing these last few days before the end of the agreement.
One thing to consider: once you structure MLB so that it becomes more of a free agency sport there will be left only a few teams-like in the 50s-that can financially support a competitive team-and that would be in the very large markets ala New York, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Chicago, etc. Ownership wants to prevent that since the more teams are competitive the more tv revenue is available to share amongst all teams.
