Notwithstanding a marathon arranging meeting that hauled from Tuesday morning until Wednesday night – with only a brief rest for sleep – Major League Baseball and the players’ association could not resolve a roadblock and arrive at another labor deal in front of a 6 p.m. deadline set by the league.
As a result, M.L.B. Commissioner Rob Manfred declared on Wednesday night that another week of regular season games has been canceled. Also, the second-longest work stoppage in the game’s set of experiences proceeded.
“Because of the logistical realities of the calendar, another two series are being removed from the schedule, meaning that Opening Day is deferred until April fourteenth,” Manfred said in a statement. “We endeavored to agree and offered a fair deal with critical improvements for the players and our fans. I’m disheartened by the present circumstance’s proceeded with impact on our game and all the people who are a piece of it, especially our loyal fans.”
Manfred notably didn’t involve the word cancellation in his statement, but the wiggle room with which to fit a full 162-game regular season is restricting.
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Although M.L.B. had compromised last week not to reschedule canceled games – nor compensate players for them – the league offered players an opportunity this week to play a full season with rescheduled games, and subsequently full compensation and administration time. Rescheduling a week of games is obviously much easier than two, and the latter may be unlikely while saving the same dates for the World Series in October.
“The proprietors’ choice to cancel additional games is completely pointless,” the association answered in a statement Wednesday. “Subsequent to making a bunch of comprehensive proposals to the league earlier this evening, and being told substantive reactions were forthcoming, players presently can’t seem to hear back.
“Players need to play, and we can hardly wait to get back on the field for the best fans in the world. Our first concern remains the finalization of a fair agreement for all players, and we will proceed with arrangements toward that end.”
Presently, an already tense and complicated labor question could settle the score thornier over a huge issue: pay and administration time for players attached to the missed games.
In M.L.B’s. eyes, lost games mean less income for its 30 clubs, and accordingly the league doesn’t believe it should need to compensate players for those missed challenges. The association’s position has been that the players will demand full compensation and administration time for games that M.L.B. unilaterally canceled, or they will attempt to have them rescheduled.