MLB, Players Association continue to go nowhere fast

Opening Day, already in jeopardy, now is teetering on the brink of cancellation after Saturday’s round of talks between Major League Baseball and the Players Association left both sides far apart on the language for a new collective bargaining agreement.

On Day 87 of the lockout, the face-to-face meetings in Jupiter, Florida, again were unproductive, and the lack of any significant movement after six consecutive days of negotiating suggests that 48 hours will not be enough to complete a deal by Monday’s deadline to salvage the March 31 start for Opening Day.

Commissioner Rob Manfred set Feb. 28 as the cutoff date for an on-time start to the regular season based on having a month requirement for spring training, which remains in limbo.

Earlier this month at the owners’ meetings in Orlando, Manfred said he viewed "missing games as a disastrous outcome for this industry." But baseball is now on a collision course with that scenario unless there is a near-miraculous breakthrough or Manfred decides to bend on his deadline.

The players have not recognized Monday as any sort of trigger to cancel games (and cost them regular-season salary), and the two sides will meet again Sunday in Jupiter.

The clock isn’t on baseball’s side, and what was supposed to be a critically important week to preserve the 162-game season is now just about over. Opening Day is about to become the next casualty of Manfred’s lockout, with no end in sight.

On Friday, MLB canceled three more days of spring training games through March 7. Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues openers had been scheduled for Saturday. Instead, MLB and the Players Association had multiple sessions of more fruitless discussions at Roger Dean Stadium, where the Mets originally were scheduled to face the Marlins that same afternoon.

After Friday’s extended talks — the longest of this lockout — produced a slight glimmer of optimism, that unraveled Saturday when the players’ proposal on a number of economic issues was not well received by the management side. Perhaps most alarming was the discussion over the competitive balance tax, the biggest obstacle to a deal, which again illustrated the canyon-sized gap that exists.

The union’s last CBT proposal, delivered before the lockout took effect on Dec. 2, included a first-year payroll threshold of $245 million that rose to $275 million by the fifth and final year. On Saturday, the players shaved $2 million off each of the middle three years, a marginal trim, and requested that the tax rates remain the same as the previous CBA (20% to start), according to a source.

The owners, who have stood on $214 million for the first two years, followed by $216M, $218M and $222M, responded Saturday by adding $1 million to 2023 (for a $215M total). They also slightly lowered the tax-rate penalties to 45% (down from 50), 67% (down from 75) and 95% (down from 100). All that did was further enrage the players, who have declared such inflated rates unacceptable as a de facto salary cap for the sport.

The CBT has been a radioactive subject from the start of these negotiations, based partly on its combustible nature at the negotiating table. The owners maintain it is a necessary fail safe against "runaway spending" — Manfred’s words — and crucial for smaller-market teams to have a chance in any given year. The players insist the CBT is an artificial brake on spending and salaries, which is why they’re guarding those numbers so fiercely.

The union made some other slight adjustments in Saturday’s package. The request for players eligible for salary arbitration (between two and three years of service time) was dropped to 35 from 75, but MLB remains inflexible on the current rate of 22%. There had been nothing additional regarding minimum salaries or the pre-arbitration bonus pool — two areas that are miles apart — but the players were upset by two other issues.

Despite Friday’s progress on the draft lottery front, MLB wants that tied to any agreement on the expanded playoffs, which the union took as a step backward in negotiations. MLB has asked for 14 teams for the postseason; the players are drawing the line at 12.

Another wrinkle that surfaced Friday, as first reported by The Athletic, was MLB’s desire to make on-field rule changes with 45 days' notice. As it currently stands, MLB can do so only with the union’s approval or unilaterally with one years’ notice.

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.