The Player’s Association is set to make a counteroffer to MLB’s proposal from January 13 today. The league’s proposal was met with disappointment from the Player’s Association.
We’ve seen people place bets on when the lockout will end, some saying that it’ll be over by the end of January or potentially sometime in February, while others are like me and believe that opening day will be impacted and the season will be shortened.
Each time there’s a new proposal marks an important day in CBA negotiations. The clock is certainly ticking, and the idea of Spring Training starting on time is becoming less and less likely. The beginning of Spring Training depends largely on when both sides choose to set aside their differences and come to an agreement.
Will that be today? Probably not. The two sides remain far apart on several things. The owners at least proposed raising the minimum salary and rewarding teams who don’t manipulate service time. But that did little to impress the players, as they still see the owners not putting the best possible product on the field. In other words, “tanking”.
The players also want some changes to the arbitration system and the free agency process. And let’s be honest here, it seems as though the owners are simply rearranging things from previous proposals, but not making any major concessions, which is what we’ll need to see from both sides if this is all to end anytime soon.
That all seems unlikely, and if you ask me, it seems like we’re going to lose some games in the 2022 regular season. As noted by Evan Drellich of the Athletic, movement tends to wait until the last minute, which can be interpreted in a number of ways. “Last minute” could potentially mean until after Opening Day was originally scheduled, which is March 31.
But at the same time, with any lockout we always hear about how far apart the two sides are in terms of negotiating, and then boom, out of nowhere they come to an agreement. So while there’s not really any optimism that this will end today, it could end when we least expect it.
I would still caution any fan out there to not get their hopes up. This is a tedious process, and we should all be prepared for this to drag itself out.
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