MLB Spring Training games will not begin until at least March 18, the league announced on its website. Exhibition play had previously been scrapped through March 11.
It’s not a surprising delay, as it’s improbable there’ll be a new collective bargaining agreement in place to begin Spring Training games any sooner. There seems likely to be at least a week between the finalization of a new CBA and the start of Spring Training games. Teams will still need some time to conduct the remainder of their offseason work. Players will need at least a few days to report to camps before diving into gameplay.
MLB deputy commissioner Dan Halem and union lead negotiator Bruce Meyer met informally yesterday, but Jon Heyman of the MLB Network writes (Facebook link) that sit-down “provided little in the way of progress.” The league and Players Association don’t have any further talks currently scheduled — although Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic tweeted this morning that the MLBPA is currently preparing a counteroffer to MLB’s last proposal. Talks are expected to resume some point soon, and it’s hoped the union’s reported willingness to again discuss a 14-team playoff field could kickstart negotiations.
Of greater concern to most than the start of Spring Training is when the regular season will kick off. The league has thus far canceled the first two series of the regular season, with the league’s website listing April 7 as the date for the first scheduled contests. It seems likely that’ll soon be further delayed as well, as commissioner Rob Manfred has indicated he wants a four-week Spring Training period (from the start of players reporting, not from the start of the first Spring Training game). MLB announced the cancelation of the scheduled March 31 Opening Day 30 days in advance. There are 34 days until April 7.
Don’t stop there, cancel the whole season. Let both sides go hungry.
Another vote to cancel the season.
The fans will be the ones who experience any hunger. Those guys are too busy setting up “special funds” for the lower paid guys.
Pretty disappointing the two sides cant get this worked out so games can get started.
IMO, Players are asking for too much in one contract and owners really seem set on sticking it to them for it.
Minor league baseball will get my support this year.
Hear hear
Minor league baseball is owned by MLB now. If you are mad at MLB for this lockout and the lost games, go watch your local college play and avoid the minor league games.
(Insert pithy comment here.)
Fire Manfred.
Why!? He works for ownership and doing his job.
Fire Clark!
Fire good, but burns.
I have no idea why the owners have this clown as their puppet. I get that they want someone they can control and will only look out for their interests, but still, they can’t do better than this joker? Every time he speaks, he sounds like a nerdy middle schooler fumbling his way through asking the ‘popular girl’ out.
The owners regularly look like combative idiots because of this moron. If they’re going to be paying him tens of millions, try to get at least something for their money. Cause right now, they’re paying a lot of money to make things much worse on the PR front, whether they want the games played or not.
Who cares what he sounds like? Or what he looks like? Did he arrive at the negotiations in Florida in a Ferrari and a $100k watch like the players did? The players looked a lot worse in the eyes of an everyday fan.
No one showed up at the negotiations in a Ferrari or wearing a $100k watch. None of the players or owners reps were wearing a Patek Phillipe, so nothing even close to $100k.
Manfred was wearing a classic Rolex Oyster Perpetual 39 Rhodium. While its not a new one, it would sell for $9-$12k. Gorgeous watch.
I just spent $6500 on an Oyster Perpetual 41 for myself as a late Christmas gift. Just absolutely beautiful watch and you only ever have to buy one in your lifetime.
Did Manfred arrive in a Ferrari? No. It was reported that he arrived in a hired Escalade, probably after flying in on a private jet. Let’s stop acting like Manfred is rolling around in a 1995 Corolla. Are you seriously that naive?
Why? Manfred, Giamatti, Chandler and Landis are the only decent commissioners the game has had,
How do you fire him he is the MLB like palpatine is the Senate
Good to hear. Today the MLBPA crawled round on their belly saying their ‘overwhelming opposition’ to 14 team playoffs wasn’t so overwhelming after all.
Sit them out for the season please. Let’s see these future ubereats and grubhub workers think about their positions for a while.
How dare you leave out the goated food delivery service
Doordash
Well, I can’t say I mostly agree with you – but you made me laugh 🙂
Ha – you too kelly (in fact, they were just here) 🙂
Tuesday – MLBPA – Go ahead lock us out, we dare you! No way we’re agreeing to 14-team playoffs! Solidarity Forever!
Friday – OK, we agree to 14-team playoffs.
I love baseball, I do, but now the MLBPA Clown Show has become more entertaining. Leave them out for the year please and allow us our entertainment.
No!!!
Sun was out today. Did some early spring cleanup outside. Walked down to the beach in front of my house and had a cold Pilsner Urquell. I’ll manage somehow.
Isn’t the MLBPA setting up some kind of facility to get them prepared for the season? I don’t see anything really going anywhere until at least a month of the season is canceled. At that point it becomes a lose lose to hold out any further.
My money is on a month of the season being canceled minimum before we see real progress in negotiating.
Jason Heyward and Willson Contreras were very outspoken when they accused MLB of trying to wipe out the entire month of April. They would still get paid by TV revenue, but the players wouldn’t get paid since they were still in lockout status. I can definitely see this happening. If Manfred can be fired, then get rid of him. He’s bad for baseball.
These players sounded really bold a week or so back. They were strong, united, and more than ready to go out.
The season hasn’t even started, and they are whining.
they are still strong but more willing to make the season start. players weren’t as opposed to 14 team postseason. it is just one of the bargaining tool.
I can’t wait to hear the begging and the whining come June. All the tough guys like Lance McCullers, Alex Wood, Ross Stripling – it will be delicious.
We need more lockout!
Best Screenname Ever- Worst Comment Ever
Of course he can be fired but it would take 23 out of 30 teams voting in favor of it and that would never happen. Rob Manfred will be the commissioner until he retires or falls out of favor with the owners but apparently they think he’s doing a good job.
MLB gets advanced TV money to start the season and they would not have to pay it back until 25 games are lost.
But they don’t get to keep it unless those games are rescheduled.
In case you aren’t aware, Manfred is the owners’ mouthpiece, nothing more. He isn’t an independent entity. He’s paid to sugar coat this mess to the media and fans. The owners can get rid of him whenever they want to.
these TV conpanies arent paying a 162 game rate for 150 games. it’s that darn simple. no one’a foolish enough to not put that in the agreement.
And another MLB-R article, and another article not mentioning that Boras blew up an agreement between the players and owners.
I just watched the Maddon interview. No idea who anyone is but I guess a HOF baseball writer has some cred.
You are right. The silence is deafening.
MLBPA – “FOR THE FANS…”
MLB – “FOR THE FANS…”
I don’t know one fan who is or will ever benefit from this. It’s not about us at all. So no matter what you jokers work out for yourselves, leave mentioning fans out of it because we are an AFTER THOUGHT. You all sound sooooooo fake.
Every fan should boycott the games for whatever season the jokers do have. Pull back our support for game attendance and don’t buy any merch for all of 2022.
I’m with you danwelte. I will still watch games on TV and follow MLB closely, but I won’t attend any games this year. Hopefully more fans will follow and the owners and players learn something from the empty seats.
Hi PhilliePhan. When you “still watch games on TV” the owners are getting their money. That is where they get the most income. Going to the game doesn’t matter a whole lot anymore. The revenue they get from people attending games is peanuts compared to the TV money. Either way, they’ve got you, my friend.
TV money is a fixed revenue, negotiated every few years. It’s not like Phillie Phan is putting $10 in each player and owner’s pocket by watching 120 games in 2022. The variable revenue we can all control is ticket sales, concessions and merchandise sales.
So they don’t have any of us either way.
If 4/5 fans would actually boycott games and merch sales, but still watch the games on TV, owners would feel it big time and players would see how much we appreciate them taking a stand for us.
No, he isn’t putting dollars directly in their pockets from his, but the cable contracts are what MLB survives on. Didn’t mention merchandise as it is available just about anywhere, not just stadiums. You pay your cable bill, you are paying baseball and all other sports. My rates go up every time a new sports contract is signed, any sport. That is why I say they gotcha. I haven’t been to a game since 1994, but they still get my money every time I pay that bill. Just a quick question, where did you get the figures you used?
Jerry….but by not going to the game we can SHOW them we’re ticked. Those TV deals are contracts that they’ll probably get whether we watch or not. At least until the contract ends.
I agree, but the fans don’t have the balls to stay away and will never show their anger. All they want to do is cry about it. I just get tired of reading all the false threats and insane numbers commenters post to prove their pointless points. Every time an article comes up about the labor talks, all these people say the same darn things over and over and over with very few putting any thought into it.
Example; if 4\5 fans don’t attend… THAT’s 80%!!! Of course that would matter, but the last stoppage had a drop of roughly 5%. That’s 95\100 fans who did come back.
The constant cry of nobody cares about the fans. Don’t you think it has painfully obvious since the 80s? Why the heck do they keep repeating it? They sound like a broken record.
I’m venting, I’m sorry. I’ll shut up for now.
Hey Jerry, I didn’t use any figures bro, just hypothetical reasoning. Like you said later, 80% would make MLB feel it. You seem to agree thats what it would take to make a difference.
2020 wasn’t just a short season, it was a MUCH shorter season because MLB and MLBPA dragged all fans through a “will there or won’t there” be a season during covid. Now they’re doing it to the same fans again for the 2nd time in 3 years.
Add to it that we’re all just people who are so tired of inflated prices everywhere we look, the exhausting covid journey, divisive politics and the international turmoil of a world going a bit bonkers right now.
All this with no promise of baseball and now cancelled spring training – an event many of us rarely miss. No escape from these brutal realities. No pastime. Just watching the rich and the richer argue over who gets custody of OUR game.
If we “voiceless” fans find the GRIT to push for change that actually benefits US – we can drive prices and profit down for a while just to demonstrate FOR ONCE that WE, TOO aren’t to be trifled with. We are the ones who always lose the most. Yet the game is supposed to be played for US. Without an audience, it’s a little league game with Nike uniforms.
The actions of the jokers on both sides PROVES they DO forget about their audience and the 2020 damage they’re replaying all over again. And then they vainly utter “for the fans” to obscure their real intent – personal enrichment and desire to control the game.
We are the audience and this is bullstein we are watching. Shame on them. They should each kneel and beg forgiveness of every fan, young and old.
Neither side has compromised enough. Neither side deserves our support. And neither side is protecting the FANS.
Sadly, all gate revenue which includes ticket sales, parking, concessions, and all the other thing that you can spend money on in the stadium is less than 30% of MLB revenue. Whether you show up to games or not wont hurt the owners much.
You organizing boycotts against watching MLB on TV or streaming and threatening the advertisers on those TV games with boycotts would hurt the owners.
danwette, I was being facetious. I took the 80% as an outrageously poor example. Based on the last work stoppage, and I am simply guessing a little more realistically, that no more than 8% will leave, because fans love the game and cannot break their habit, kind of like smoking. We should quit, but we can’t. I am thinking a slightly larger percentage will walk away this time because only a few have the strength to kick the habit. We sit at our computers\phones and vent just to feel better, then wait for our masters to return. We are as much of a puppet to the game as Manfred is to the owners, as much as Clark is to the union.
Baseball fans are like battered spouses. They take a beating once in a while, then threaten to leave and never return. Once they get past that initial hurt, they long for their abuser to return and then greet them with open arms once the abuser comes back. Players and owners know this, based on past experience. Both sides can withstand the minimal loss. The fans already know they will be returning in masses once an agreement is made. We have cast our idle threats and now wait. We are the only predictable part of this entire situation.
With the growing ticket prices—- the middle class family of 4 can not afford to go to a game!!
Ticket prices and concessions, parking and gas, plus motel/hotel prices are guaranteed to go up!!! Last season—- I could barely afford to take my family to just one game!!! We use to go at least once a month!!! I’m sure the cost of taking my family to a game, this season and in the future, will be way out of our price range!!!
I concur, Dan.
REMEMBER THIS: BASEBALL DOESN’T CARE ABOUT ABOUT THE FANS.
or they would have come to an agreement sooner in the delayed pandemic season or now when people can start living normally again.
No sport cares about “THE FANS”! Have you seen where China is blacking out the Premier League this weekend? Or that an American-owned Formula One race team has dropped its principal sponsor and lead driver?
when do people realize this is like any other business?
Hope they Cancel the season and lose a huge portion of their fan base.
The owners pretty clearly don’t want to play in April. They are going to try and time this just right so they don’t have to pay the players for a month but will still be able to get their full TV money and their expanded playoffs.
I don’t know, wouldn’t the players see that coming and then plan to leverage that situation to their advantage to some extent?
like strike right before the playoffs.
The owners only get their full TV money if they reschedule all the games they lost from the lockout.
The owners don’t have to pay back the money that they are advanced by the networks until 25 games are lost, but they still have to pay it back.
Ah, thanks Pads.
The entire ordeal is a joke. Cancel all of it. Maybe they will realize on both sides how much the fans have become uninterested
Streaming soon: Greed vs Greediest, the loss America’s former pastime.
Manfred vs Clark Celebrity Cage Match!
You mean two headstrong ego’s!!! Both of these guys need to be replaced!!! Both have put a black eye on MLB through their entire tenure of holding the position they hold.
I honestly don’t care if they cancel the entire season at this point. I’ll still be a baseball fan. It would be cool if they cancelled the regular season and just went straight to the play offs with all of the teams that are actually trying to win. If a team isn’t spending at least 100 million on payroll they obviously need to relocate to a city that can support having an MLB team. I know I’m not the only one tired of seeing the same teams refuse to spend money and blame it on lack of revenue. There is no reason that teams like the Pirates, Guardians, and Orioles should have sub 30 million dollar payrolls besides the fact that they want to lose games on purpose. The MLB could fix the tanking issue with a salary floor but apparently putting a better product on the field is far less important than making sure players don’t get raises and the luxury tax doesn’t go up.
Great! Please cancel the entire season and shove it in the players’ ungrateful, greedy, selfish faces.
Honestly, I’d rather watch AAA, AA, and A ball games. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Tyler Tolve, whom my son took lessons from, and Drew Waters this off-season. These guys are hungry for playing in the MLB. Let the kids play, and televise the minor league games in the MLB time slots.
MLB won’t get paid for that and the fans will not tune in to see those games in enough numbers to make it worthwhile for the advertisers.
Frick all of em.
Probably reasonable thing to do given where they are with negotiations. Still leaves an awful bitter taste in the fan’s mouth..
So that means in about 2-3 days they will cancel the next 3 series of the regular season, have a couple more unproductive negotiations, claim there’s a glimmer of hope, then cancel the rest of spring training, which then cancels the next 3 series and so on and so on.
Means look at a whole seasom gone. anything less consider a bonus!!!
@Mustard If they follow the same pattern, they’ll cancel 2 more regular season series, in about a week from now.
Hate to break it to y’all..but there’s no chance with as much as they’re dug in that there will be an end to this any time soon..We’re looking at a half season at best..
I think the room’s ahead of you.
My understanding is the owners can cancel up to 25 games and still get the same pay from the TV networks. So basically they will cancel 25 games easy peasy. At that stage we will see if the players are willing to return the favor and refuse to agree to a deal.
Why do the owners care about the CBT numbers? None of them spend that much money anyway?
Oh, I think it’s become about a lot more than CBT numbers now.
The owners don’t have to start paying back the advance they get on TV contracts until 25 games are lost. They don’t get to keep that pay without making up those games.
Seems both sides had no intention of cutting a deal without the other side losing money from lost games. Seems like the real negotiating has only just begun.
My tickets get cancelled next. I have Spring Training games for the 18th, 19th and 20th. Third season in a row spring training is being spoiled.
I definitely understand!!!! I’m in the same boat!!! Very Frustrating!!!
All the chants for “cancel the season!” “They’re ruining baseball, I’ll never watch again!” Good gtfoh, why even comment anymore??? You selfish, fair-weather fans…
Mr. Roper!
No one will care when they all come back together
That means that the soonest regular season games could start is April 19th.
Sad this state of affairs… totally sick of both sides in this process, absolutely no fan of the commish nor Tony Clark!
I just want to watch Rays baseball again soon. I do not want the season cancelled. The sooner the two sides come to an agreement, the better.
PLAY BALL!!!
I’m just at the point I just don’t care. Like I’m just forgetting baseball ever existed and moving on with my life. I just don’t care anymore. And for me, the 3 true outcomes are boring to watch. I’ve been a diehard baseball fan my whole life but I just don’t care anymore and honestly I’m not gonna have the motivation to watch. I barely notice it’s gone. Hopefully that feeling goes away someday but this isn’t just because of the strike. It’s just lost my interest over the years and it used to be all I cared about
Why can’t this crap be negotiated out during the season prior to the end of their contract??
At least the fairly obvious and minor disputes. Plus the two sides could pitch out the totally insane wants and wishes on both sides!!!
Then the owners / players have the whole winter to haggle over the most outrageous topics of interest.
To me—— both the Commissioner of Baseball and the head of the players union have ultra huge egos!!!! Head set on their way or the highway!!! No compromising in the middle for those two!! One of their egos might get tarnished if one gave into the other, or even compromised!!!
This is going to be a short season because of 2 unreasonable people!!!!