Report: MLB sets another deadline for 162-game season
Major League Baseball suggested to the Major League Baseball Players Association that a new collective bargaining agreement must be reached Tuesday to play a 162-game campaign with full pay and service time, sources told Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
MLB also reportedly told the MLBPA that it intends to cancel another week of games if an agreement isn't reached. The league already axed the first two regular-season series after the union rejected an offer on March 1 to end nine straight days of negotiating in Florida.
How are 162 games still on the table after commissioner Rob Manfred postponed Opening Day and canceled the first two series of the season? Presumably, those two series can still be rescheduled, even if Opening Day is later than the originally scheduled March 31.
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) March 8, 2022
The two sides plan to meet again Tuesday after talking Monday, according to Drellich and Rosenthal.
The league reportedly proposed multiple options to reach a new CBA. However, one player said the talks favored MLB, and another major leaguer added that he's done getting his hopes up, per Drellich and Rosenthal.
MLB offered to increase the competitive balance tax to $228 million at the start of the new deal and end with $238 million, sources told Drellich. He adds the league's concession on the CBT comes with "major strings attached."
The lockout has now lasted 96 days following the expiration of the old CBA at the beginning of December.