Major League Baseball Officially Cancels First Two Series Of 2022 Season

The beginning of the Cleveland Guardians era is officially delayed.

ESPN's Jeff Passan is reporting that the MLB Players' Association and MLB owners couldn't come to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement to begin the 2022 season ahead of the league's self-imposed Tuesday afternoon deadline.

BREAKING: MLBPA player leaders agreed unanimously not to accept MLB's final proposal, and there will be no deal on a new collective-bargaining agreement before MLB's 5 p.m. ET deadline, sources tell ESPN.

MLB has threatened to cancel its March 31 Opening Day without a new deal.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 1, 2022

Following that report, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced this afternoon that the first two series of the year have been canceled. He also said that at this point, because there is always an interleague series being played and it's not always feasible to simply reschedule games, there is not a current plan to readjust the schedule.

"I had hoped against hope that I would not have to have this press conference in which I am going to cancel some regular season games ... our failure to reach an agreement was not due to a lack of effort by either party," Manfred said.

That means the Guardians lose a season-opening homestand with the Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins.

There had been some hope late last night that the two sides may bridge the gap on their differences, but it became clear fairly quickly this afternoon that wasn't going to happen ahead of the deadline.

According to multiple national reporters for ESPN, FOX and The Athletic, the players union and the owners were awfully far apart from finding common ground on the Competitive Balance Tax thresholds, pre-arbitration bonus pool allotments and minimum salaries.

MLB's last offer before the deadline included raising minimum salaries from $675,000 to $700,000 and increasing them by $10,000 per year. The players' association's last offer started at $725,000, with increases of $20,000 in the first few years of deal before a different increase later.

The league wants a 14-team playoff, which the union doesn't favor because they are fearful that teams at the higher end of the payroll structure may not spend as much in free agency because the standard for getting into the postseason lessened. 14 teams is nearly half the league, and it may not require quite as many wins to qualify for the post-season.

The league also upped its pre-arbitration bonus pool each year from $25M to $30M, while the union requested a minimum of $85M.

Regarding the CBT, the league wants to start at $220M for the first three years of the deal before increasing to $224M and $230M the last two years. The union is asking for $238M in year one, $244M in year two, $250M in year three, $256M in year four and $263M in year five.

From the owners point of view, they've agreed to an increase in minimum salaries by 33 percent from last year to better address the needs of players not on huge contracts, which would impact nearly two-thirds of all players in the game. They also compromised on a draft lottery, service-time issues for younger players that want to hit free agency sooner and playoff expansion.

Manfred did not give a specific timeline for the discussions to resume, but indicated that the MLBPA was on it's way back to New York and the earliest a new deal could be reached is on Thursday this week.

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