Major League Baseball is adding more pressure on the players to agree to a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) sooner than later. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the league’s spokesperson said that the MLB intends to start shortening the 2022 season if there is no CBA deal until the end of February.
In case the negotiations between the league and the players union continue past February 28th, the league will begin removing games from the schedule without the option of rescheduling them.
“A deadline is a deadline,” the spokesperson said via ESPN. “Missed games are missed games. Salary will not be paid for those games.”
Despite the MLB’s insistence on the deadline, there is almost no indication that this will lead to a significant breakthrough in the negotiations. As a matter of fact, this could strain the relationship between the two sides even more. According to sources, if the league decides to cut the salary for missed games, the players will reject the expanded playoffs proposal.
The MLB enacted a lockout on December 2nd after the league and player’s union failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement following the expiration of 2016’s CBA. The two sides went more than a month without further talks before opening another round of negotiations in mid-January.
Since then, little progress was made. The league and the union are still far apart on a number of things, including core economics, service-time manipulation, and the draft. At one point, MLB even requested a federal mediator to get involved, but the players refused the proposal.
