MLB owners met with the Players Association on Saturday to present their latest offer in collective bargaining agreement (CBA) talks.
The offer wasn’t well-received by players, even though they haven’t formally rejected it.
As a result, there is, once again, a sense of uncertainty surrounding the 2022 MLB season.
Owners locked out the players on December 2, and aren’t expected to lift the measure until there is a new CBA.
The problem is they want to impose most of their ideas instead of negotiating in good faith.
USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported on Wednesday that both parties will meet again later this week.
MLB and the players union are expected to meet again later this week but nothing yet has been formally scheduled as of this morning. They have met once in the last 14 days on core economic issues.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) February 16, 2022
However, the exact date isn’t known at this moment, as there has been no formal announcement yet.
The Two Sides Are Barely Talking
It’s hard to negotiate a CBA deal if the sides involved meet once in the last 14 days to discuss the crucial elements of the agreement: economics.
MLB and the union are very far apart in the core economics issues, such as minimum salary, competitive balance tax (CBT, also known as luxury tax), and compensation for outstanding players between 0-3 years of service.
The most frustrating thing at this point is not that they are incredibly far off, but that they take forever to get back in the table, as if they didn’t lose enough time in December.
Both sides stopped talking to each other after the lockout: over 40 days went by until there was some sort of dialogue.
The future of the season is at stake, and the sides barely talk.
At this point, it’s impossible not to think about the regular season being delayed.
There is not enough time for both sides to overcome their enormous differences, and there doesn’t seem to be any sense of urgency.
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