Lockout looms over MLB owners meetings

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The quarterly meetings of MLB’s owners are typically low-key, under-the-radar events, or as much as any involving billionaires can be.

This week, however, is a rare exception.

While the agenda is the same as most years, with different committees gathering to discuss the sport’s myriad issues, ranging from business to on-field-matters, there is an elephant in the room here: the ticking clock of Rob Manfred’s lockout, which entered its 69th day when the meetings began Tuesday at the Waldorf-Astoria.

If there exists any sense of urgency on the owners’ part, it was hardly discernible in the hallways and hotel lobby as the group went about business as usual. The Players Association believes it is still owed a counterproposal from last week’s negotiations in New York, but the last pitch from the owners’ side -- if you could call it that -- was their Thursday request for a federal mediator’s assistance, which was promptly refused a day later by the players.

MLB did offer up one new item Tuesday with the announcement that BBWAA media members would be allowed back in clubhouses, before and after games, just as they were before the COVID-19 restrictions implemented in March of 2020. That would be a monumental and welcome policy shift for both reporters and the industry as a whole after two years of Zoom interviews with team personnel, but the statement did include one significant caveat.

Restoring the old rules for clubhouse access would of course require the Players Association to sign off on the measure. Otherwise, MLB’s pledge was meaningless, and for anyone paying attention lately, that’s no small feat between two sides that don’t seem all that interested in finding common ground lately. The Players Association routinely pushed back last season on expanding media access, citing the pandemic-related safety concerns, and it’s unclear how that would be greeted at this stage.

Obviously, there are some hurdles to clear first in getting a new CBA, and that isn’t feeling any closer. The two sides seem to share concern over the core issues -- a raise for younger players, anti-tanking measures and the competitive balance tax -- but remain far apart in how those items are addressed. Neither side sounds overly optimistic about bridging that gap in the very near future and that’s going to be a problem as Opening Day draws closer.

As the owners huddled Tuesday, spring training was scheduled to start in only a week, and that no longer is feasible. Even if the owners and players agreed on terms tomorrow [not happening] the timetable for a return is hard to predict as dozens of free agents remain unsigned and COVID-19 protocols need to be established for camps to open.

Delaying spring training, however, is not a major concern for either side. Players aren’t paid until the start of the regular season, which is when the revenues begin to flow for the teams. The pressing question now is whether or not Opening Day is truly in jeopardy. And if it isn’t yet, it will be very soon.

Ideally, teams would like to have a month of spring training -- it was shortened to roughly three weeks midway through the pandemic summer of 2020 -- and time is running out for such a plan to keep the current Opening Day intact.

With Manfred expected to speak with the media Thursday at the conclusion of these meetings, it’s reasonable to think he’ll announce a delay to the start of spring training. With the owners convening here in Orlando, and the players having their own meetings split between Florida and Arizona, the intermittent talks between the two sides should resume in some capacity later this week. Progress, however, is becoming difficult to predict.

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.