I think the players will blink at some point. Its easy for someone on a massive deal to take a principled stance and give up a year's salary, but there are a lot more guys who will start to have unpaid bills and need the paycheck.

Just about zero chance the season starts on time now.

“It is time to get assistance.”

Major League Baseball responded today to the MLBPA rejecting the intervention of a federal mediator. The entire statement, via a league spokesman: pic.twitter.com/3jGBLPGudX

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 4, 2022

Commissioner Rob Manfred is scheduled to address the media on Thursday and is expected to deliver the biggest blow yet of the MLB lockout. More: https://t.co/1uZWsQeRk0

— Deesha (@DeeshaThosar) February 9, 2022

My guess would be a delay to spring training

Major League Baseball announces the delay of spring training games. They will not start earlier than March 5. In addition, MLB and the MLBPA are to meet Monday for an in-person meeting. pic.twitter.com/Q4qDmiCJKI

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 18, 2022

https://defector.com/mlb-owners-have-forgotten-that-they-always-lose-lockouts/

article from 2 months ago with accurate prediction "The owners believed, out of spite or out of principle or just for whatever reasons owners believe things, that wasting months that could have been used to bargain over the MLBPA's reasonable demands was the most effective way to… well, avoid having to close any of the loopholes that owners have exploited in pursuit of their obsession with inexpensive talent and dodge the difficult and necessary conversations about how the minimum salary and arbitration systems are both in dire need of less exploitative upgrades, for starters. Thanks to the lockout, the clock is now ticking in a way that it previously was not, and the league will now learn if the union is capable of standing up to the pressures of this moment. The owners' hope, which is not quite a plan, is that a long winter of inactivity might make enough players so nervous about their short- and long-term futures that they will agree to a league-friendly deal"

Said it before in another thread and will repeat it here- the owners liked 2020's pro-rated salaries and are tryin to get to that here. The April/May games aren't well-attended anyway.

It makes sense that one of their first declarations was "We're cancelling games and won't pay you for them!"

Aggies2009 said:

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Said it before in another thread and will repeat it here- the owners liked 2020's pro-rated salaries and are tryin to get to that here. The April/May games aren't well-attended anyway.

It makes sense that one of their first declarations was "We're cancelling games and won't pay you for them!"

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If games actually start getting missed, games June - October won't be well attended either. It seem they have forgotten what happened after 94. What is going to be used to pick them up this time? You have a great number of old schoolers such as myself that loved baseball just the way it was. I could go on about why today's product is inferior in every way, except video coverage, as compared to even 10 years ago. Tony Clark and Rob Manfred are both absolute garbage and completely destructive to the game.

I mean I get the tanking thing. I don't like it either. However not all teams are created equally. I thought Tampa was "tanking" this year because of some of the moves they made. They went on to win 100 games.

Major League Baseball has cancelled three more days of spring training games: March 5, 6, 7, spokesman says. The earliest spring training games can start, by MLB’s scheduling, is March 8. Of course, that’s contingent on getting a deal done by then, so more games could be canceled

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 26, 2022

Nitro Power said:

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Aggies2009 said:

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Said it before in another thread and will repeat it here- the owners liked 2020's pro-rated salaries and are tryin to get to that here. The April/May games aren't well-attended anyway.

It makes sense that one of their first declarations was "We're cancelling games and won't pay you for them!"

---

If games actually start getting missed, games June - October won't be well attended either. It seem they have forgotten what happened after 94. What is going to be used to pick them up this time? You have a great number of old schoolers such as myself that loved baseball just the way it was. I could go on about why today's product is inferior in every way, except video coverage, as compared to even 10 years ago. Tony Clark and Rob Manfred are both absolute garbage and completely destructive to the game.

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Yep. It took Interleague Play and the Home Run chase of 98 to start getting fans interested again. It was a long time before fans came back.

and the players don't mind missing the cold weather games in April

Players are used to their “threats”. Owners actions have made it clear all along that they have a set # of games where they still make profits/get TV money. They don’t want to play. It’s sad that these are the guys who drive the direction and “future”of our amazing sport.

— Jameson Taillon (@JTaillon50) February 28, 2022

Interesting take. Seems like he's implying the owners know how many games it takes to turn a profit, assuming it is less than 162, and they are okay playing less games and making less profit. Nobody in the history of ever has said "yeah, okay, we would like to make less money than we did last year."

W said:

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and the players don't mind missing the cold weather games in April

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When they don't get that paycheck they are expecting they will mind.

the rookies and the 2nd and 3rd year players...yes.

the high-priced vets --- who are the only ones the players union cares about --- no

W said:

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and the players don't mind missing the cold weather games in April

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terrible take. The players mind. a lot

They played a 60 game season with no fans and seemed to turn out OK. Greed will win out on both sides and fans will start finding other things to do.

LSCSN said:

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They played a 60 game season with no fans and seemed to turn out OK. Greed will win out on both sides and fans will start finding other things to do.

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Exactly. And during that stretch they went all in on the political bull as well. It's like they actively want to sabotage themselves. Or just seeing how far they can push fans until we've had enough of these games. Greed may win, but fans lose. And when fans lose enough, greed ends up with everyone having nothing. We're all losers together...

It seems like they are going to get something done today. I have read something about a 16 he marathon yesterday to meet the self imposed deadline. Forgive me, but I have zero sympathy for either side. Perhaps if they would have spent the months of December and January negotiating instead of posturing, we would already be playing games. I can only hope when this rolls around again we have different leadership on both sides.

yep, Manfred/Clark are terribad.

W said:

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and the players don't mind missing the cold weather games in April

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Do you think they mind missing out on the pay that comes with those games?

MLB official: "We thought that there was a path to a deal last night and that both sides were closing on in on the major issues. They couldn’t make us a CBT proposal last night so we agreed to extend the deadline to exhaust every option." 1/2

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) March 1, 2022

MLB official: "The MLBPA has a decidedly different tone today and made proposals inconsistent with the prior discussions. We will be making our best offer before the 5 p.m. deadline for the MLBPA that’s a fair deal for players and clubs.” 2/2

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) March 1, 2022

Union source contends that its tone has been consistent since yesterday, that the players are very far apart on key issues such as CBT, thresholds, and the prearb bonus pool. No difference, the union believes, from today to yesterday, in its view.

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) March 1, 2022

MLBPA today offered to drop its request on the new prearbitration bonus pool to $85 million in the first year, w/a $5m increase annually over course of deal, source said. Union previously was at $115m. MLB has offered $25m.

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) March 1, 2022

MLBPA today offered to drop its request on the new prearbitration bonus pool to $85 million in the first year, w/a $5m increase annually over course of deal, source said. Union previously was at $115m. MLB has offered $25m.

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) March 1, 2022

On league minimum salary: MLBPA’s latest offer starts at $725,000, with increases of $20,000 in first few years of deal, a source said, then a different increase later. MLB has offered $675,000 with $10,000 increases (the offer made yesterday)

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) March 1, 2022

Lol they aren't even close. No deal will be made today

I feel like the Rangers have been absolutely cursed with this ballpark opening.

Shortened no-fan season... Mask opening day... and now you get Yankees on a long weekend to open the year and that's going bye-bye.

Having Yankees on opening weekend sucks anyway. They are always our largest draw, don't necessarily need them on OD. But yes, likely losing OD and then some will be a big blow

MLB’s best, final offer before pulling down games, per MLBPA official:
• Pre-arb bonus pool of $30 million, up $5 million from before
• No change on CBT thresholds (220/220/220/224/230)
• Minimum salary starting at $700k, going to $740k over course of deal. PA starts $725k

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) March 1, 2022

Damn, no way in hell they agree to CBT thresholds or pre-arb pool. More delay.

Well fook

BREAKING: MLB players reject best, final offer from owners. If owners and commissioner Rob Manfred now follow through on their stated threat, Opening Day 2022 will be delayed, and some number of games in the regular season canceled. Players contingent is leaving Florida.

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) March 1, 2022

Fantasy baseball is one of my enjoyable distractions……don't these real players realize the impact on us make believers?

And jobs lost in spring training cities and mlb cities.
At least they are closer to a deal.

First two series of the season officially canned.

Well, time for me to start looking for a part time job