MLB, union bargain into night to salvage 162-game season
NEW YORK (AP) — Negotiators for locked-out players and Major League Baseball bargained into the night for the second time in a week ahead of Commissioner Rob Manfred’s Tuesday deadline to reach a deal preserving a 162-game season.
Union chief negotiator Bruce Meyer and general counsel Ian Penny headed a bargaining team that met in the morning at MLB’s office across the street from Radio City Music Hall.
About three hours later, Deputy Commissioner Dan Halem, Executive Vice President Morgan Sword and Senior Vice President Pat Houlihan made the three-block walk for a 20-minute visit to the union’s office overlooking Rockefeller Center.
The sides continued speaking later in the day by telephone.
On the 97th day of baseball’s second-longest work stoppage, the sides appeared to be trading numbers on the key economic issues of the luxury tax, the amount of a new bonus pool for pre-arbitration-eligible players and minimum salaries.
It remained unclear whether this more intensive phase of talks could lead to an agreement or yet another breakdown in oft-strained talks that have dragged on for nearly a year.
About 16 1/2 hours of bargaining in Jupiter, Florida, that began Feb. 28 produced progress but led only to an angry breakdown in talks the following day, when Manfred announced the first two series for each team during the season had been canceled.
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