The Windup Newsletter ⚾ | This is The Athletic’s MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup directly in your inbox.If the league locks out the players after this season, I promise it won’t make them happier. Plus: A funny-looking double play helps the Twins beat the White Sox and there’s a Mariners pitching situation developing. We also answer the age-old question: Do ties really go to the runner? I’m Levi Weaver, welcome to The Windup!Lockout Looms: Are MLB owners really going to kill the golden goose?Evan Drellich has a highly informative story today about the reasons that MLB owners might be willing to lock out players, disenfranchise fans and cancel all or part of the 2027 season.Here’s a hint: It’s not about competitive balance. If it were, owners would need only look at the standings — the Rays, Guardians, A’s and Brewers are leading their respective divisions — before closing up their briefcases and calling it a successful meeting. At the very least, some clear-headed person might say, “OK, but we all agree that a repeat champion is still better than not having a season, right?” And everyone would surely have to concede that point, even if begrudgingly.The issue is that over the last 10 years, MLB franchise values have only more than doubled, to an average of $2.9 billion. Over the last few decades, there simply hasn’t been a more stable and rewarding investment than a big-league team.Except …Those pesky NBA and NFL franchises. And therein lies the rub. Why should MLB owners be happy with doubling their billions over a decade when owners in other sports have doubled theirs in, on average, half that time? Why would anyone be happy with $2.9 billion when someone else has $5.4 billion, or $7.1 billion?I don’t imagine many owners read The Windup (it is for baseball fans, after all), but I think if $2.9 billion doesn’t make you happy, $7.1 billion probably isn’t gonna do the trick either.Every time this topic comes up, my brain goes back more than 20 years to a quote by Captain Barbossa, telling the tale of the Aztec gold in the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean”: “The drink would not satisfy. The food turned to ash in our mouths. And all the pleasurable company in the world could not slake our lust. We are cursed men, Ms. Turner. Compelled by greed, we were. But now, we are consumed by it.”Middle Relief: Does the tie really go to the runner?In this week’s mailbag, Stephen Nesbitt asked readers to submit their “hill-to-die-on” takes — widely accepted baseball truths that readers are convinced are simply untrue. David P. hit us with one we’ve all heard, and Nesbitt took it to a trusted source …