Major League Baseball

MLB lockout: Baseball cancels first two series as sides fail to reach deal

Updated Mar. 1, 2022 7:50 p.m. ET

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Major League Baseball has canceled its March 31 Opening Day, with Commissioner Rob Manfred announcing Tuesday that the league will lose regular-season games over a labor dispute for the first time in 27 years.

Acrimonious lockout talks collapsed in the hours before management’s deadline.

Manfred said the league is canceling the first two series of the season, dropping the schedule from 162 games to likely 156 games at most. Manfred said the league and union have not made plans for future negotiations.

"We worked hard to avoid an outcome that was bad for our fans, bad for our players and bad for our clubs," Manfred said at a Tuesday news conference. "I want to assure our fans that our failure to reach an agreement was not due to a lack of effort by either party."

After the sides made progress in 13 negotiating sessions over more than 16 hours Monday, the league sent the players’ association a "best and final offer" Tuesday on the ninth straight day of negotiations.

Players rejected that offer, setting the stage for MLB to follow through on its threat to cancel the Opening Day schedule.

At 5:10 p.m. ET, Manfred issued a statement that many fans had been dreading.

MLB made its last offer about 90 minutes before a self-imposed 5 p.m. ET deadline Tuesday.

The union convened a call of its player representatives after receiving MLB’s offer. Players have repeatedly cautioned that significant differences remained in key economic areas, and MLB’s proposal did not close that gap in their eyes.

The sides made progress during Monday's bargaining, then exchanged new offers Tuesday.

"We thought there was a path to a deal last night and that both sides were closing in on the major issues," an MLB official said before the last offer was transmitted to the union, speaking on the condition he not be identified by name. "They couldn’t make us a CBT proposal [competitive balance tax] last night, so we agreed to extend the deadline to exhaust every option.

"The MLBPA had a decidedly different tone today and made proposals inconsistent with the prior discussions."

Mets star pitcher Max Scherzer and free-agent reliever Andrew Miller were present for talks on the 90th day of the lockout.

Manfred had said Monday was the last possible day to reach an agreement that would allow the minimum time needed for spring training in order to play openers as scheduled March 31.

The union said it didn’t necessarily agree to the timeframe.

The sides agreed Monday, subject to an overall deal, to expand the postseason from 10 to 12 teams, rather than the 14 MLB had hoped for.

The union believed there was an understanding on luxury tax rates, which management had been proposing to substantially steepen while eliminating higher penalties for recidivist high spenders.

Players’ latest proposals contemplated giving up on expanding salary arbitration from the top 22% to 35% by service time of the players with at least two seasons of service and less than three, but only if MLB agreed to other union proposals.

Players will lose $20.5 million in salary for each day of the season that is canceled, according to a study by The Associated Press, and the 30 teams stand to lose large sums that are harder to pin down.

Spring training games were to have begun Saturday, but baseball’s ninth work stoppage — and first since 1995 — already has led to exhibitions being canceled through at least March 7.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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