NEW YORK – Major League Baseball canceled the first week of spring training games through March 4 in the first public acknowledgement of the disruption caused by the lockout.
The announcement Friday came with the work stoppage in its 79th day, and a day after talks on economics between management and the Major League Baseball Players Association lasted just 15 minutes.
Negotiators are set to resume bargaining on core economics on Monday in Jupiter, Florida, and MLB said members of the owners’ negotiating committee will attend the session, just the seventh on the central issues of the dispute since the lockout began Dec. 2.
Spring training was to have started this week, and the exhibition schedule was supposed to begin Feb. 26. There were 16 games set for that day, including the Atlanta Braves – in their first competition since winning the World Series for the first time since 1995 – playing the Boston Red Sox in Florida and the renamed Cleveland Guardians taking on the Cincinnati Reds in Arizona.
“We regret that, without a collective bargaining agreement in place, we must postpone the start of spring training games until no earlier than Saturday, March 5,” MLB said in a statement released Friday. “All 30 clubs are unified in their strong desire to bring players back to the field and fans back to the stands.”