Lto MLB arrived at the deadline for negotiations for a new collective agreement for the 2022 season to start in a timely manner, since there was no agreement, the Commissioner Rob Manfred, canceled the start of the league.
At a press conference, Manfred affirmed that, despite the attempts of both parties, there was no agreement by the CBA and that the first series of the season cannot be played.
“The calendar dictates that we will be able to play the first two series of the regular season and those games are officially cancelled. It is not possible to reach an agreement until at least Thursday.”
Manfred mentioned that hard work was done to secure the start of the league, in addition to highlighting that both parties tried to save the games.
“We work hard to avoid a result that is bad for our fans, bad for our players and bad for our clubs. I want to assure our fans that our inability to reach an agreement was not due to a lack of effort of neither party.”
The Commissioner asserted that the owners did not close the negotiations, rather they gave their best offer to avoid closing.
“We never use the phrase ‘last best offer’ with the union. We said it was our best offer before the deadline to cancel games. Our negotiations are deadlocked at the moment…but that’s different from using the legal term deadlock, and I’m not going to do that now.”