Any optimism that might have existed regarding the possibility of Major League Baseball and the MLBPA agreeing on a new collective bargaining agreement to end the lockout is now moot.
For the second week in a row, the “positive feelings” that existed one night were squashed like a bug in a windshield within 24 hours. With that (per Mark Feinsand, MLB.com), commissioner Rob Manfred released a statement Wednesday evening announcing that two more series in the 2022 MLB season had been canceled, and putting the earliest possible Opening Day as April 14.
MLB has postponed Opening Day until at least April 14, removing two more series from the schedule. Commissioner Rob Manfred issued the following statement: pic.twitter.com/WW35UaDF6J
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) March 9, 2022
Unsurprisingly, the fans were not happy about this.
Such a sad state of affairs for our national pastime. 😢 https://t.co/IpDeSOcikG
— Danielle McCartan (@CoachMcCartan) March 9, 2022
Awesome… https://t.co/Fl288Prf0M
— Bucs In The Basement (@BucsBasement) March 9, 2022
— Locked Out Red Sox (@LO_RedSox) March 9, 2022
So this sucks. https://t.co/OkZkbvqmEg
— Vinnie Duber (@VinnieDuber) March 9, 2022
The owners just don’t care about the sport and certainly don’t care about us the fans #MLB #MLBLOCKOUT https://t.co/4aGk9DN0KX
— Greg Pomes (@Greg_Pomes) March 9, 2022
With the owners cancelling another week of games (per Nightengale), this much is clear: there are no good guys here. Both the league and the union play the villains.
— Howard Cole (@Howard_Cole) March 9, 2022
Much like he did when the first two series of the season were canceled, Manfred took a lot of heat from fans.
I stopped reading at "good-faith" because no, the owners have never negotiated in good faith.
Just a bunch of billionaires convincing the public that the players who actually play the game are greedy.
Manfred doesn't like baseball. And needs removed. https://t.co/1tb7P1Y7rY
— Drew (@DrewCrabtree12) March 9, 2022
At least MLB got smart and put out a written statement instead of having Manfred grinning on camera.
— Adam Wells (@adamwells1985) March 9, 2022
Official statement from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred: pic.twitter.com/RUBho2HDXX
— Drew Silva (@drewsilv) March 9, 2022
The situation is definitely not good. Producing more pessimism here is that from the owners’ perspective, the big financial losses from the lockout won’t come until roughly a month’s worth of games are lost.
Even worse than that, there’s no real reason for optimism at this point. If anything, the most recent negotiations have only added fuel to the fire.
If negotiations weren't ugly before, just wait now that two weeks of games have been canceled, with MLB saying those games will not be made up and the players will not be paid for games missed.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) March 9, 2022
At the very least, when the next set of negotiations do come, MLB fans would be wise to not read too much into any reports of optimism. Eventually, a deal will get done. But until that becomes official, there’s no point in anyone getting their hopes up. The last two rounds of negotiations have confirmed that.
