(Reuters) – Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said on Thursday it would be “disastrous” if the lockout resulted in lost games for the 2022 regular season but is optimistic a new labor agreement will be reached in time to avoid that scenario.
MLB players have been locked out since early December and the March 31 start day for the 162-game regular season could be in jeopardy unless significant progress is made toward agreeing on a new collective bargaining.
“If I hadn’t given consideration to what it would mean to miss games I wouldn’t be doing my job obviously. I pay attention to that,” Manfred told reporters at the owners’ meeting in Orlando, Florida.
“I see missing games as a disastrous outcome for this industry and we are committed to making an agreement in an effort to avoid that.”
Among the issues of the current dispute are owners and players not agreeing on service time toward free agency, playoff expansion, a luxury tax and possible salary floor, and several proposed rule changes.
The lockout is MLB’s first work stoppage since the players’ strike of 1994-95, a dispute that forced a premature end to one season, delayed the start of the next year’s campaign and turned off fans, with attendances plummeting when play finally resumed.
Spring Training camps are scheduled to open next week in Arizona and Florida with exhibition games to start on Feb. 26. Manfred, who had not addressed the lockout since the dispute began, said four weeks of workouts would be preferable.
After an 11-day break, MLB will meet with representatives from the MLB Players Association on Saturday in New York, where Manfred said the league will offer what he described as a “good faith” proposal in an effort to move the process forward.
“The status of Spring Training is no change right now,” said Manfred. “We’re going to have a conversation with the MLBPA about the calendar, we understand where the calendar is.
“But until we have that conversation, and until we see how this session on Saturday goes, it’s no change.”
After a round of unsuccessful talks, owners requested the assistance of a federal mediator to help resolve the lockout but the MLBPA rejected the idea, saying the best way to resolve the dispute is by returning to the bargaining table.
Manfred described the latest proposal as a positive one and remains hopeful it will lead to a resolution.
“I’m an optimist. I believe we will have an agreement in time to play our regular season schedule,” said Manfred.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
