Although no one can credibly expect a new CBA to arrive in short order, the players and the owners continued meeting today. They’ll do it again tomorrow, the date appointed by MLB as the singular deadline for an agreement before regular season games are canceled.
Unlike all the previous negotiating days, there weren’t immediate reports about what was discussed and/or how the early reactions looked. Not sure what to make of that, but I’ll update you when more comes out.
MLB and the MLBPA plan to meet again tomorrow, the day of the deadline the owners have imposed for the season to start on time. Meetings are over for today.
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 28, 2022
It’s unknown if there was any movement at all today but they discussed a lot of hypotheticals in their day-long meetings
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) February 28, 2022
UPDATE: I’ll caution the optimistic among you that what MLB sees as progress might be seen by the players as far from that. So keep your loins girded for the overwhelmingly likelihood of no deal by tomorrow night and canceled games:
Was a productive day of talks, according to a league source. They’ll meet Monday morning and keep trying for an agreement before the end of the day/night. Productive doesn’t necessarily mean progress towards a deal by tomorrow but at least they’re still talking.
— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) February 28, 2022
MLB official called today productive, was reluctant to characterize or give details about the talks today. Starting at 10 am tomorrow — deadline day.
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) February 28, 2022
But, yes, that update is better than the alternative for now. And an earlier start tomorrow than the rest of the meetings, for what that’s worth.
Unreasonably optimistic take? Owners finally made a real move, and the players don't want to speak out and risk any further progress they hope for tomorrow.
Cynical take? MLB wants the appearance of good efforts out there so they say it was players who blew it up tomorrow.
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) February 28, 2022
UPDATE 2: So, in other words, *not* productive? Wonder which side this came from:
There were no formal proposals exchanged and the two sides still are ‘far apart’ on significant issues.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) February 28, 2022
Ope, as I update, it must be that the players are getting their reaction out, and that’s whose side it came from:
While the conversations were good, union source indicates they’re still far from an agreement. Nothing got checked off today.
— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) February 28, 2022
No one was overflowing with optimism, to say the least. And there is no set deadline time tomorrow: Expectation seems to be if they’re nearing a deal, they’ll push for it. And if they’re not… well, MLB has vowed to start cancelling regular season games.
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) February 28, 2022
My cynical take sure looks to be in play, unfortunately …
UPDATE 3: Just some more color from the day:
As a technical note, there were no new formal proposals today from either side. But there was a lot of discussion: if we did X, could you do Y, and so forth.
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 28, 2022
That kind of trading makes sense, and it would’ve been great to engage in those kinds of hypotheticals weeks and weeks ago. (As for the draft pick compensation/qualifying offer bit, well, the owners were already proposing really high tax rates in the CBT, so I don’t quite get how that’s different from where things already were. Doesn’t seem like movement in any case.)