Anthony Behar

MLB lockout: Owners taking 'threatening tone' as deadline looms

By Chelena Goldman | Last updated 2/28/22

MLB owners previously stressed they didn't want to cancel games for the upcoming season because of the ongoing lockout.

Now, it appears they are fed up with not getting their way, as reports pour in indicating owners are now pressuring the MLBPA with the possibility of canceling up to a month of games.

MLB today indicated a willingness to miss a month of games and took a more threatening tone than yesterday, sources briefed on the day’s first meeting between MLB and the Players Association tell me, @Ken_Rosenthal and @FabianArdaya. Full context of conversation not yet known.
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 28, 2022

The owners previously set Monday as the deadline to agree on terms for the new collective bargaining agreement so that no part of the season would have to be canceled. Drellich reported Sunday that progress had been made between owners and the Players Union, but that "the gap on key issues remains large."

As ESPN's Jeff Passan wrote, these negotiations have been going on at a slow and fruitless pace for a year -- and players are fed up with how little to no development is being made.

"The players are angry at the trajectory of the negotiations," Passan said, "which have inched along for almost a year with little demonstrable progress. More than that, they're tired of the game they love saying, in ways both active and passive, it does not love them back."

The owners are able to end the lockout whenever they see fit and function under the guidelines of the former CBA while negotiations continue on the new one. They have not chosen that avenue as the threat of canceling parts of the season loom large.

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