MLB games canceled as negotiations stall, but Triple-A Tacoma, minor leagues unaffected
Commissioner Rob Manfred “hoped against hope” the situation wouldn’t yield a Tuesday press conference to announce the cancellation of regular season games. Yet on MLB’s deadline to strike a deal and end a 90-day-long lockout, talks between owners and players stalled.
MLB reportedly offered the Player’s Association a “best and final” offer on Tuesday afternoon, which players unanimously rejected.
Manfred, at roughly 5 p.m. EST on Tuesday in Jupiter, Florida, officially canceled the first six games of the regular season with no plans to make them up. Players will not receive pay, and a typical 162-game season has shrunk to 156 – for now.
“We worked hard to avoid an outcome that’s bad for our fans, bad for our players and bad for our clubs,” Manfred said, addressing the media. “I want to assure our fans that our failure to reach an agreement was not due to a lack of effort by either party.
“Maybe the most unfortunate thing is that agreement, the one we’ve offered to our players, offered huge benefits for our fans and for our players.”
Both sides gained momentum on Monday, as 13 in-person negotiations in Jupiter, Florida spanned over 16 hours and crept into Tuesday morning.
The MLBPA released a statement after Manfred’s announcement and stressed its objectives: to promote competition (or, discourage tanking), provide fair competition for young players, and “uphold the integrity of our market system.”
“Players and fans around the world who love baseball are disgusted, but sadly not surprised,” it added.
Marcus Stroman, a starting pitcher for the Chicago Cubs, said “Manfred gotta go.”
The Mariners were scheduled to begin their season at T-Mobile Park on March 31 against Detroit. Tuesday’s announcement postpones baseball in Seattle to April 15 in a meeting with the Houston Astros, barring additional cancellations.
Seattle’s 2022 campaign now starts April 7 in Minnesota for an away series with the Twins.
The good news: baseball’s lockout only affects MLB. That means all of the minor leagues, including Triple-A Tacoma, will start on time, with opening day slated for April 5 at Cheney Stadium.
Had owners and players agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement by the MLB-determined deadline of March 1, Seattle’s season would have kicked off with a six-game home stand. That’s how the Rainiers will begin their season, regardless of current negotiations. With new manager Tim Federowicz, they’ll look to repeat their Triple-A West championship and build on a 78-52 record in 2021.
“It’s very exciting,” Federowicz told The News Tribune in December, shortly after the announcement of his hire. “Just coming out with a good team is just a blessing. You don’t really know what type of team we’re going to have yet. But I know just from talking to some of the people in the organization, some people outside the organization, I know they’re doing things right.
“I think every (team in the organization) last year finished above (a .500 winning percentage). I think it’s just a great organization to start my first coaching job, and I’m very excited.”
Seattle’s season – which can still last 156 games if the sides strike a deal – is full of promise, as the organization exits what they declared a “step back” in 2018 and entered contention with what Baseball America considered the best farm system in the sport last month.
The Mariners finished 90-72 last season, good for their best finish since 2003. Before the MLB initiated the lockout on Dec. 1, Seattle inked reigning AL Cy Young award winner Robbie Ray to a five-year contract and swung a trade for All-Star second baseman Adam Frazier.
“Simply put, we believe that an offseason lockout is the best mechanism to protect the 2022 season,” Manfred said in a letter to fans on Dec. 2. “We hope that the lockout will jumpstart the negotiations and get us to an agreement that will allow the season to start on time.”
In the months since, owners and the MLB failed to reach a consensus on luxury tax thresholds, a new bonus pool for pre-arbitration players and a minimum salary. Negotiations touched on playoff expansion, possible shift restrictions and a pitch clock that would aim to shorten the current game duration of three hours and ten minutes, on average.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported that negotiations might pick up again Thursday, though the union reinforced they had already made their best offer.
Giants pitcher Alex Wood’s tweet from Tuesday afternoon: “...I’d say there was cautious optimism on the players side because the owners were actually at the table negotiating with us toward a deal. What we’re asking is more than fair. If there’s no deal, the optimism from MLB was a PR illusion to make it look like they tried.”
This story was originally published March 1, 2022 at 4:44 PM.
