It was never rational to hope that, as soon as the calendar flipped to January 2022 – as soon as the first “work week” began – the owners and the MLBPA would instantly get back to the negotiating table and finally start talking about those thorny economic issues. But, when it comes to sports, I am not always rational. So I hoped the first bit of work on the lockout (which sucks, by the way) would begin this week.
Nope. Status quo. Nothing scheduled:
The first week of 2022 is resembling the last month of 2021: There are no negotiating sessions currently scheduled between MLB and the players association. They have met twice in the last month since the lockout, but strictly on non-core economic issues.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) January 3, 2022
I think we all know it’s going to take until late January for either side to actually feel any kind of pressure to even RAISE the issue of scheduling negotiating sessions. We’ll continue to hope our irrational hope, but there’s been nothing in the discourse or the history (recent or long past) to suggest any True Stewards of the Game or Champions of the Fans will step up to kick off negotiations until it’s absolutely necessary.
If they get into economic issues before the last gd week of January, I’ll be shocked.