NEWSLETTER
Just to keep you apprised of what’s happening on the negotiation front, what with MLB having cancelled the first two series of the year, but obligated to keep working toward a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. I tend to think, based on messages from the teams and the amount of games cancelled so far, a deal would have to be reached by about Sunday night in order for no more games to be cancelled.
To that end, this is about what I expected for today – a meeting to set up some meetings this weekend, hopefully:
Lead baseball negotiators Dan Halem, Bruce Meyer are to meet today for an informal one on one
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) March 3, 2022
There are plans for an informal one-on-one meeting between MLB’s Dan Halem and the MLBPA’s Bruce Meyer, the lead negotiators for both parties, in New York today, the first between the sides since the league canceled the first week of regular-season games on Tuesday afternoon.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 3, 2022
I wouldn’t expect any MOVEMENT today. Just a framework for discussions on how to even try to start bridging the remaining gap without additional hostility.
Your big caution on any of this, though, is that all signs point to MLB and ownership being perfectly happy and willing to cancel most of April before getting really serious about making a deal. Heck, there’s a reason MLB likely threatened exactly that a week ago. Thus, I don’t expect this weekend to be particularly fruitful. Maybe next weekend.
UPDATE: Meeting took place:
MLB and union officials met for roughly 90 minutes today. It ended up being four people total: two members of each sides’ negotiating team, including Bruce Meyer of the union & Dan Halem of the league.
All the major issues were discussed, including the timing of future talks.
— James Wagner (@ByJamesWagner) March 3, 2022
That sounds wholly appropriate to me for today. Like I said, the next target is probably Sunday night, and if you’re actually going to try to make that happen (dubious if all sides actually want that … ), then you have to first lay out the plans for the next few days.
