Starting on Monday, MLB and the Players Association have met every day to discuss the details of a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) to cover the 2022-2026 period.
Some of us thought there would be at least some minimal progress throughout the week, but that hasn’t been the case: the sides are not only far apart in their respective demands, but the needle hardly moved in these past few days.
It didn’t matter that a handful of MLB owners and about 25 players showed up to the meetings.
It didn’t matter that they met every day, either.
A deal is not close, and without an agreement before Monday, regular season games will be lost.
If there is a silver lining, is that the meetings are expected to continue, even over the weekend.
The Sides Can’t Take Days Off Now
Of course, if they have a deadline coming on Monday, it would be preposterous to take two days off when they already took 42 off in December and January.
ESPN’s Jesse Rogers was asked by a fan if the meetings would continue over Saturday and Sunday, and he responded with a “Yes”.
Yes re the weekend https://t.co/rJkX9tkKYF
— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) February 25, 2022
It’s hard to think about how much progress they could make between Friday and Monday if they have had months to talk and there is still a huge gap in core economics issues like minimum salary, competitive balance tax (CBT), and pre-arbitration bonus pool.
The key day will be Monday: the sides won’t have a deal by then unless something drastic happens, and it’s interesting to see how the league and the union handle what will come next.
Fans are the ones suffering the most, besides the players, because they are taking away baseball from them for who knows how long.
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