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Today is Super Bowl Sunday.
It’s always been kind of an unofficial baseball fan/writer thing to tweet “Now baseball season begins!” or words to that effect after the NFL’s championship game is over.
But we can’t do that today because at this time, due to MLB’s lockout of players by ownership, we don’t know when baseball season will begin. MLB Spring Training games are supposed to take place in 13 days and that’s not gonna happen.
All we can do is guess, based on public statements made by Commissioner Rob Manfred and others, so far.
Here’s what we know from the very short owner/player negotiating session on Saturday:
MLB on Saturday also discussed a calendar with the players, expressly outlining when a deal would be needed by to begin the regular season on time. The exact dates the league identified were not immediately known, and it’s unclear yet if the union sees eye to eye with MLB’s sense of the calendar. Commissioner Rob Manfred two days earlier said about four weeks would be needed for spring training to be held.
If a minimum four weeks would get Spring Training done in order to get the regular season to commence on time March 31, that would make the latest date to begin and still get this done Thursday, March 3.
Here’s what Manfred said at his Thursday news conference about the time it would take after an agreement was reached for that (probably) abbreviated Spring Training to begin:
Manfred said that once a deal is reached, it would take less than a week for spring training to start, and then about 28 days for players to be game-ready for the start of the season, meaning the new CBA would need to be made by late February to avoid missing games.
“Less than a week.” Let’s be generous and give them a week. One week before March 3 is Thursday, February 24. Or, if you want to push it a bit further, let’s say February 25 or 26.
That gives owners and players between 12 and 14 days to reach a comprehensive new collective-bargaining agreement in order to not lose any regular season games in 2022.
Doesn’t seem like much time. I’m saying that’s not gonna happen, and really, it's inconsiderate to fans for MLB to not acknowledge that a delay is inevitable and to start postponing things..
Here is a good Twitter thread, worth reading in its entirety, laying out exactly what is happening here:
Yesterday, the Commissioner said he was making "a good" offer, that canceling games would be "disasterous," and that they were one breakthrough away from reaching agreement.
— (((EugeneFreedman))) (@EugeneFreedman) February 12, 2022
Today, his personal spokesperson says that MLB knew that its proposal had "no hope to 1/ pic.twitter.com/jPEDD746i2
facilitate a deal in days."
— (((EugeneFreedman))) (@EugeneFreedman) February 12, 2022
In other words, the Commissioner knew that he was lying yesterday, but wanted to get free PR. Now that it's Super Bowl weekend, the actual substance of his side's proposal doesn't matter.
Management still is not taking this seriously. They have no 2/
intention to reach agreement quickly, if at all. They are still playing around, testing the players to see if they will just give up in order to start spring training. This is silly and it wastes time. It is abusing the process of collective bargaining.
— (((EugeneFreedman))) (@EugeneFreedman) February 12, 2022
The Commissioner 3/
could end the lockout at any time. He could allow the status quo expired CBA, along with the JDA, and the domestic violence agreement to be in full force and effect, by just ending the lockout.
— (((EugeneFreedman))) (@EugeneFreedman) February 12, 2022
He won't allow baseball to be played. 4/
At this point the only questions reporters should be asking are, 1) "why don't the owners want baseball to be played this year?" 2) "do you realistically believe you will break the union with this lockout?" /end
— (((EugeneFreedman))) (@EugeneFreedman) February 12, 2022