The Latest Update On MLB Negotiations Doesn't Seem Encouraging
BOSTON (CBS) -- Normally at this time of year, pitchers and catchers are flocking to sunny Florida and Arizona in preparation for the forthcoming Major League Baseball season. This year, though, the fields are silent, as MLB and the MLBPA remain miles apart on reaching common ground on a new CBA.
The latest update doesn't sound very encouraging, either.
It comes from USA Today's Bob Nightengale, who tweeted Wednesday that the league and the union have plans to meet this week but don't have a firm date for that meeting. Nightengale added that the two sides have only met once in the past two weeks about the core economic issues involved with the CBA.
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
The owners have locked out the players since December, when the previous CBA expired. Negotiations have been slow to progress since then, and despite commissioner Rob Manfred's insistence to the contrary, the scheduled Opening Day date of March 29 appears to be in serious peril.
Throughout the process, a lack of urgency has defined the state of affairs. It appears that now, at a time when camps were supposed to be opening to big leaguers, that will remain the status quo.