As talks over a new collective bargaining agreement lurch on between MLB owners and players, there hasn’t seemed to be a great deal of optimism towards getting a deal done.
That’s all while a deadline of February 28 has been set for talks to conclude, in order for the season to remain intact with a full, 162-game slate and players to be paid their full salaries.
But some haven’t taken that deadline all that seriously. Jayson Stark of The Athletic joined KNBR on Wednesday to break down the discussions and indicated that deadline might be overstated and that there has been a clear lack of urgency by both sides to get a deal done.
“We got a week to go — less than a week — before they lose opening day, assuming that’s a firm deadline, which it probably is not,” Stark said. “That deadline, I don’t think it’s as firm as it’s made out to be and you can maneuver in all kinds of ways. In ’95, when that strike ended they decided they’d have a 144-game season. But in order to get all the teams to 144 games, they were dropping extra games and series all over the place and teams weren’t playing the same schedule. You do what you have to do and that’s what will happen now if it comes to that.”
Despite that, an MLB spokesperson announced Wednesday that the deadline was real and that games will be canceled next season if a deal is not reached by February 28.
“A deadline is a deadline. Missed games are missed games. Salary will not be paid for those games,” the spokesperson said in a statement, per The Athletic.
As usual, Giants pitcher Alex Wood chimed in on Twitter to rip into the news.
Wood has been consistently outspoken on Twitter throughout the negotiations and claims the owners and the league are not and have not been acting in good faith.
The latest MLB offer reportedly increases the minimum salary by $10,000 per year, starting with $640,000 per year in 2022.