James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
It’s back to the meeting room for Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported Thursday that the league’s Dan Halem and the union’s Bruce Meyer have “informal” plans to meet one-on-one in New York. Halem and Meyer have been the lead negotiators up to this point.
Thursday’s meeting will be the first since the league, which initiated the ongoing lockout, elected Tuesday to cancel the regular season’s first week of games.
“The calendar dictates that we’re not going to be able to play the first two series of the regular season, and those games are officially canceled,” commissioner Rob Manfred told reporters.
He added: “Our failure to reach an agreement was not due to a lack of effort by either party.”
The press conference came after the two sides failed to reach an agreement following nine days of negotiations in Florida, although the league previously waited 43 days to make its first offer.
MLB issued a deadline of 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday to either come to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement or cancel some games, and it made its final offer shortly before that deadline.
Evan Drellich of The Athletic shared the details, which included no changes to the competitive balance tax and slight increases to minimum salaries and the pre-arbitration bonus pool:
Evan Drellich @EvanDrellich
MLB’s best, final offer before pulling down games, per MLBPA official: <br>• Pre-arb bonus pool of $30 million, up $5 million from before<br>• No change on CBT thresholds (220/220/220/224/230)<br>• Minimum salary starting at $700k, going to $740k over course of deal. PA starts $725k
The players rejected the offer, and many then reacted to how the process played out:
While the first two series of the season were canceled for each team, the two sides will need to reach an agreement in the near future if they want to prevent further cancellations. After all, there are still a number of unsigned free agents who will eventually join teams, and players will need some time to ramp up during a spring training.
Even if the meeting is “informal,” it is notable it is happening Thursday since Manfred previously told reporters there would be no agreement “until at least Thursday.”
This year marks the first time since 1995 that the start of a MLB season will be delayed due to a work stoppage.
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