Major League Baseball and MLB Players Association reps are resuming talks today over a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), with the beginning of spring training and the regular season looming.
Both sides have been uncharacteristically quiet as negotiations continue after two meetings last week. There are reportedly still many points of contention to address. At one point Feb. 1 was hailed as a date for a deal to be reached in order to avoid a delay of spring training, then Feb. 8, and now all bets are off the table.
As nature and Twitter abhor a vacuum, pundits are all over the pace of talks and where things stand. The Athletic is already proclaiming the beginning of the season two months away is already in serious doubt:
A new CBA in baseball isn’t close. A breakdown of how far apart MLB and the Players Association are, with @Ken_Rosenthal https://t.co/vsyqQ8M4q7
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) January 31, 2022
while other outlets, like ESPN, are taking a more measured approach to things. The folks actually running spring training are still prepping for a normal launch later this month, holding hiring fairs and setting up operations, And with minor-league players–that is, those players not on the 40-man roster–set to report to camps around Feb. 21, there’s the plausible chance we could see camp begin with minor leaguers in lineups and MLB players reporting later should a deal be reached.
In short, there is a lot of opining out there from the peanut gallery, but they’re not in the room where it happens–and we aren’t either.
RELATED STORIES: MLB, players meet in person; talks to continue today; MLB, player reps set to meet in person Monday