The owner-imposed lockout of Major League Baseball, on its 98th day, faces another defining milestone on Wednesday. Representatives from the MLB Players Association and the league continued negotiations after the two sides spoke and exchanged proposals before 3 a.m. ET Tuesday. MLB reportedly set another deadline this week: if an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement is reached on Wednesday, the players will go to spring training this weekend and play a full 162-game season in 2022; if there is no deal on Wednesday, other regular season games will be cancelled.
What have become known as “basic economic issues,” a difficult negotiating stumbling block for almost the entire duration of the shutdown, no longer appears to be the main obstacle to a new collective bargaining agreement. Rather, it is the league’s desire to implement an international draft that seems to be the last major hurdle. However, at this stage it seems that the union is unlikely to agree to this, because a significant part of the MLBPA members oppose the international call:
While the union has used internal draft changes as a bargaining chip in the past, even though the draftees are not yet members of the players’ association, the implementation of the international draft… which MLB has reported won’t start until 2024. — may be more complicated for the reasons given by Rosenthal above. Fernando Tatis Jr. of the Padres organization is one such MLBPA member who has recently voiced his concerns, and he is certainly not alone in those concerns. Threading this needle will no doubt be difficult for the union leadership and possibly impossible.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has already canceled the first two episodes of the 2022 season and postponed Opening Day last week after talks between the two parties fell through on March 1. Bob Nightingale of USA Today says Opening Day is April 6 or 7. for teams if there is a deal on Wednesday. The owners moved on to some key issues on Tuesday (more on that here), and in their proposal, they raised the tax threshold on baseball’s competitive balance sheet to $230 million in 2022. will grow to $263 million by CBA year 5 (MLB will only grow to $242 million in year 5).
Will we close the deal on Wednesday? CBS Sports will provide live updates and analysis of the negotiations. You can follow below.