1:27am: “There will be no deal on a new collective-bargaining agreement in this early hour,” reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Passan says the two sides will meet again later today in hopes of finalizing a deal, with MLB’s deadline to miss regular season games moved to 5pm on March 1. We can all call it a night, with the first real sense of optimism since the lockout began. Indeed, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post reports that the “union indicated a belief that MLB showed a willingness to get a deal today.”
12:32am: Negotiations between MLB and the MLB Players Association have been going on continuously since Monday morning, now stretching into the early hours of Tuesday. For the first time since the lockout began on December 2, real progress is being made on a new collective bargaining agreement. Jon Heyman of the MLB Network reports, “Current plan is to stay in the stadium and keep talking until a deal is done. Determination to finish this exists.”
The parties have already reportedly agreed upon one key point, settling on the expansion of the postseason t0 12 teams. In a December 27 survey of over 17,000 MLBTR readers, about 28% preferred 12-team playoffs, with 62% favoring 10 or fewer teams.
However, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets that “several hurdles still need to be resolved” to wrap up a deal. Among those would seem to be where to set the competitive balance tax thresholds, the league minimum salary, and the amount of money to be allocated to the bonus pool for pre-arbitration players. Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet reported recently that the parties were “actively discussing” where to set the CBT (Twitter links), and added that a gap on the pre-arb bonus pool remains.
There haven’t been many reports on specific terms being discussed since Nightengale first reported a compromise on a 12-team playoff at 10:41pm CST on Monday. Key representatives on both sides continue to work, with 16 consecutive hours in the books. The thirteenth distinct meeting of this marathon bargaining session just began between representatives of each side.
These bozos finally realized that half assed negotiations for 15 minutes every other day wasn’t going to accomplish much. Imagine that. Maybe we will get to watch baseball this season.
That’s why you set deadlines
So you can do nothing up until the very last day? That worked for projects or presentations I had to do in high school but you’d think grown adults would set better examples.
Deadline had nothing to do with it. Until the owners dropped their proposals to harden the CB tax as a de facto salary cap, there was going to be no deal. Once that was removed, a deal could happen.
Lol I’m quite certain that the deadline has influenced negotiations my man
It has kept the parties talking, so yeah. But it was all unnecessary. It’s a tactic by owners to push the players to the brink of missing paychecks. The lockout, the transaction freeze, the artificial deadline. It’s all B.S.
They could have been talking for 43 days after the lockout.
Deadlines makes deals Patrick
The deadline just got postponed.
Not saying they don’t matter, but there were a couple of non starters on the table, especially the CBT tax rates and penalties. That had to change.
Most deals in the history of business and sports were accomplished without a deadline.
It’s amazing that they can’t pay attention for 15 minutes, but expect everyone else to sit through the Orioles vs Royals for 4 hours.
Manfred is a Cancer! He’ll kill it!
The last major issue is to relocate the four NL East teams that did not win the 2021 World Series. The key is that they will all stay in the same state (or region for DC).
New York Mets become Rochester Rabbits
Philadelphia Phillies become Scranton Sheep
Washington Nationals become Richmond Roosters
Miami Marlins become Tallahassee Turtles
I whole heartedly would support this measure. The Red Wings suck
I think sheep would be best suited for New York
48Team-Did you get a ton of up votes the 1st time you came up with these nicknames ?
Livin the dream smh
Can’t sleep please let them sign a deal.
Can’t wait to wake up in the morning to read one of the sides backed out because of reasons and then we’ll have silence for another week or two
Prepare for the worst and hope for the best
Fugggg my opening day tix behind home plate are hangin on by a thread
GOMS
lol
Russia might screw that one up for you yet.
So when this is all said and done the owners and players will have tweaked the way the split up billions of dollars. Anything to fix the actual game? Anyway to make the game more watchable?
There’s this, and Manfred wants a pitch clock…..
Jon Heyman
@JonHeyman
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2m
Shift restrictions have entered the discussion. MLB and players are hitting on everything, which may not be a bad sign.
I’d ban the shift and tie the DH to the starting pitcher. Then maybe we would see strikeouts go down and balls in play go up.
Isn’t the whole launch angle make sure balls in play go up?
No, optimizing launch angle is to make the ball clear the fence.
When in doubt do all your work or negotiating at the last min. What could possibly go wrong.
Funny how the first thing they could agree on was the only thing that will actually affect fans. And not only that, but it’s an unpopular resolution. Ugh
Who is to say that it’s not a positive thing? Let’s be honest the only people that don’t want expanded playoffs are the teams that are always in the playoffs because it increases their chances of getting knocked out. The extra 2 teams gives 2 more fan bases something to cheer about and get excited about come September and October. In my opinion that’s absolutely a positive. It also keeps more teams in the hunt late in the season which makes the end of the season filled with a lot more excitement.
My team is not always in the playoffs, I don’t want expanded playoffs. When you let half the league in, it makes the 162 game regular season seem less important. If they want to expand the WC to a 3 game series, I’d support that.
Leave it to mlb to figure out how to make something longer than a baseball game.
I’m enjoying this, mainly because I known how much Manfred hates extra innings!
2 worst wild cards play 1 game playoff. Winner plays top wild card in 3 game series. 7 game divisional.
I don’t want no wwe ghost runner garbage. Don’t want a division winner playing a 3 game series. Don’t want the other two division winners sitting around for a week.
Gotta love the procrastination and then last minute push though..
It’s how I run my life and my life is a disaster.
Yeah, “It’s like Dejavu all over again” ….Yogi said it best!
Manfred is an evil cancer ! Three batter rule, universal DH, and this playoff nonsense! Baseball blasphemy
Holy crap, my Mariners might actually make the playoffs…… some day!
I have been getting emails from the Chicago White Sox with buying this ticket plan or get tickets for these games when we did not know if the 2022 MLB season was going to take place. A part of me had a feeling the owners knew that was going to be a 2022 season since the MLBPA had no choice to agree to the owners. These players were aware that they would not be paid. Honestly, I am with the owners on this one!
Yes, if and when these 2 sides do finally come together with an agreement, the owners should really move on, and quickly away from Manfred! Where’s Bud Selig…or a time machine? Like Bud, they ALL need someone that carries a similar more of a bipartisan mutual respect, on each side. Prioritize the fan experience and build a plan around this 1st vs. the money they want to make. I do not see any parties invloved starving here. What about Jeter now that he is out from the Marlins front office? Maybe a respected Owner/Player is the wise move? or an exec. respected by the players? …or Maybe someone like a Paul Beeston or Joe Torre? There are many names that would all be better choices than Manfred.
All these comments about stupid owners made me wonder about their credentials. So, I literally went through every owner’s bio. 3 Harvard MBA, and MBAs from other great schools. Several undergrads from Wharton, 3 law degrees if my memory is correct, and 90% of them are literally the most accomplished business people in the country. It’s kind of like an average high school basketball player criticizing an NBA coach.,
Uh, well, I do not believe most fans citing “stupid owner’s” are refering to any other actual educations here. It is there poor and greedy decisions/actions here being highlighted and called out. There is greed on both sides certainly but do not the owners themselves bare much of the blame by raising the player salaries consistently, every year in out bidding each other, at least for those that still can? Anyone recall how the last lock out ended in ’94-’95? As the case in point? They also collectively really hurt All of their collective incomes, (they lost billions) on both sides, but pissing off the fans so much, in what became a senseless and useless, and preventable stoppage.