DETROIT, MI – SEPTEMBER 17: A detailed view of a Rawlings official Major League Baseball sitting on top of the dugout behind the protective netting during the game between the Cleveland Indians and the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on September 17, 2020 in Detroit, Michigan. The Indians defeated the Tigers 10-3. /Photo by Mark Cunningham/MLB Photos via Getty Images
By Gabe Lacques |USA TODAY |
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In a startling turnabout after more than three months of largely stagnant negotiations, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players’ Association have reached a tentative agreement Thursday on a new collective bargaining agreement that will significantly impact the game, capping a five-day stretch of lengthy bartering that resulted in the chance to salvage a full, 162-game season.
The proposed five-year agreement came 99 days after MLB commissioner Rob Manfred imposed a lockout following expiration of the last CBA, and one week after the clubs concluded eight days of bargaining in Florida with no deal, prompting MLB to cancel one week of games.
The 2022 Major League Baseball season was scheduled to begin on March 31.
And it came one day after Manfred announced that “another two series are being removed from the schedule,” pushing Opening Day from March 31 to April 14, a potentially massive black eye for a sport that largely avoided labor fisticuffs since a strike and lockout canceled the 1994 World Series and the first 18 games of the 1995 season.
Instead, the delay will be one week: April 7 is expected to serve as most teams’ Opening Day, with the first week of games to be made up via doubleheaders throughout the course of the season.
