Major League Baseball (MLB) is postponing its opening day to March 31 and canceling the first two series of the regular season games, Commissioner Rob Manfred said Tuesday.
The decision comes after team representatives and the Major League Baseball Players Association (ML BPA) failed to reach an agreement on a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The CBA sets out the terms and conditions of employment for the players.
"We worked hard to avoid consequences that were bad for our fans, bad for our players and bad for our clubs," Manfred told reporters. "I want to reassure my fans that our failure to reach an agreement was not due to a lack of effort on the part of either side."
Manfred said the players were going to New York with union representatives, with no agreement likely until early Thursday. This meant that training camps could not function meaningfully until March 8. The league has said that the players will need four weeks of spring training before the start of the regular season.
Unfortunately, perhaps the most unfortunate thing is that the (proposed) contract, which we have offered to our players, has offered a lot of benefits to our fans and our players," he said. Is."
The players union and the spectators were "disgusted, but sadly not surprised," the players' union said in a statement.
"Since the beginning of these negotiations, the players' goals have been consistent - to promote competitiveness, to provide adequate compensation to young players, and to maintain the integrity of our market system," the union said in a statement. "Against the backdrop of rising revenues and record profits, we want nothing more than a fair deal."
The union said that the owners are trying to break the community of their players, and they will fail.
"We are united and committed to negotiating a fair deal that will improve the game for the players, the fans and everyone who loves our game," the union said.
The commissioner said the games were canceled and not postponed because it was not possible to reschedule the inter-league games. Manfred also said that players would not be paid for canceled games.
The two sides were at the negotiating table for more than 16 hours in Jupiter, Florida, on Monday, which lasted until Tuesday morning, according to MLB.com. The two sides met again on Tuesday.
The league locked out the players on December 2, barring them from using the team's facilities and preventing free agents from signing new contracts. The work stoppage is due to disagreement over how to distribute the estimated $11 billion in annual revenue.
Owners say they have been personally affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, and have insisted on signing a new CBA, similar to the recent CBA.
Athletes, meanwhile, have seen their pay cuts in recent years, especially for non-star players. The union has called for changes to the league's binding rules around the independent agency and a reduction in fines for teams that spend heavily.
The schedule for the spring training and exhibition games had already been pushed back and canceled until March 7. Last month, Manfred said the disappearance of the games would be a "catastrophic consequence" for baseball.
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