MLB News: Rob Manfred Officially Cancels More Regular Season Games

For the second consecutive week, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has cancelled regular season baseball games. For the second consecutive week, MLB owners and the MLBPA were unable to agree to terms of a new CBA.

Major League Baseball plans to cancel two more series, bringing the total to the first two weeks of the regular season, sources tell ESPN.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 9, 2022

In Manfred’s statement, the commissioner announced that Opening Day has been postponed to April 14th.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wPOd_ignkABe

He also stated that a 162-game season is no longer possible which will deeply complicate future negotiations with the players’ union. 

Full statement from @MLB pic.twitter.com/l89zJitHt0

— Marly Rivera (@MarlyRiveraESPN) March 9, 2022

According to multiple reports, MLB did increase their proposal on three key topics: the luxury tax threshold, the pre-arbitration bonus pool, and minimum player salaries.

The union's CBT proposal should read:
$232M, $235M, $240M, $245M and $250M.
So the union lowered the pre-arb pool bonus by $5 million from previous proposal and lowered the overall CBT threshold by total of $49 million over the course of the five-year deal. https://t.co/58SfvC1eGj

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) March 9, 2022

In the end, it appears the majors hurdle in completing a deal was MLB’s desire to implement an international draft. It was an interesting turn of events considering that until the last 48 hours, the new international draft system has not been a topic of discussion. 

Shortly after the MLB released their statement, the MLBPA responded.

Statement from the Major League Baseball Players Association: pic.twitter.com/XLnAvwkFpm

— MLBPA Communications (@MLBPA_News) March 10, 2022

At this time, no future meetings have been scheduled.

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