
MLB and the MLBPA will finally meet again on Saturday, February 12, per reports
MLB and the MLBPA will have their next bargaining session on Saturday, February 12, per multiple reports.
This would be the first session since the Players’ Association made an offer that MLB said it would respond to within a couple of days, and then said their response was “No” and requested federal mediation. The owners meetings are currently taking place, and apparently a decision was made during those meetings to re-engage with the union, rather than just continue to do nothing.
As has been noted, the owners locked out the players in early December, saying that they were doing so in order to prompt a sense of urgency about negotiations, and then did nothing for over a month. Little progress appears to have been made since negotiations began, with the owners wanting to largely stick to the status quo, while the players have been looking for significant changes in how pre-arbitration players, in particular, are compensated.
Spring training won’t be starting on time, of course. And the start of the regular season has to be in question at this point.