I don’t think this should be taken as a sign of anything good or bad. It just is.
More Spring Training games are officially off the schedule:
Major League Baseball has cancelled three more days of spring training games: March 5, 6, 7, spokesman says. The earliest spring training games can start, by MLB’s scheduling, is March 8. Of course, that’s contingent on getting a deal done by then, so more games could be canceled
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 26, 2022
Logistically, this just seems way more appropriate than – theoretically – trying to wrap up a CBA on February 28/March 1, and then have your Offseason Part Two *AND* have guys report to Spring Training locations *AND* gear up for fake games, all in the span of just three or four days. That is absurd. This makes the timeline much more plausible. If it held, the Cubs’ Cactus League opener would be Tuesday, March 8 against the Angels on the road. The home opener would be the next day against the White Sox. That would leave just over three weeks’ worth of games before the regular season is scheduled to open on March 31.
But, yeah. This is still all pending a deal actually getting done, which I still don’t see much reason to be optimistic about before Monday.