Play ball! MLB and players reach deal to end lockout

NEW YORK – Major League Baseball and its locked-out players reached an agreement on Thursday on a labor deal that ends the second-longest work stoppage in the game’s history.

MLB had initiated a player lockout in December, with months of either silence or flurries of activity on the labor negotiation front following since. At one point, the league set a self-imposed deadline of Feb. 28 to come to an agreement, past which they would have to cancel the first two weeks of games for the 2022 season — originally scheduled to begin on March 31. That deadline came and went, along with the announcement of game cancellations.

For the time being the bitter negotiations are now a thing of the past following Thursday’s agreement, but the process has left a bad taste in the mouths of many fans, and likely the players as well.

“I am genuinely thrilled to be able to say that Major League Baseball is back and we’re going to play 162 games,” said MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, opening a press conference with an apology to fans.

“I know that the last few months have been difficult. There (was) a lot of uncertainty at a point in time when there’s a lot of uncertainty in the world,” he said.

Team owners voted to ratify the agreement just hours after the players approved the new five-year labor pact.

According to a report on MLB’s website, the pact is expected to include increased minimum salaries, a new pre-arbitration bonus pool to reward top young players and a raising of the competitive balance tax threshold.

Spring training camps will open on Sunday and a full 162-game regular season is to begin on April 7. Double-headers have been added to the schedule to make up games that would have been played from a March 31 Opening Day.

“Our union endured the second-longest work stoppage in its history to achieve significant progress in key areas that will improve not just current players’ rights and benefits, but those of generations to come,” MLB Players Association (MLBPA) Executive Director Tony Clark said in a statement.

“Players remained engaged and unified from beginning to end, and in the process re-energized our fraternity,” Clark said

The final vote from the executive sub-committee and 30 players representative was 26-12 in favor of the new collective bargaining agreement, ESPN reported.

‘Olive branch’

While the deal paves the way for the return of America’s pastime, bitter acrimony remains between the two sides.

Clark last week called the lockout the “ultimate economic weapon” against the athletes.

Manfred defended the move on Thursday, calling it “the most effective way” to reach a new agreement without losing games when a deal was not in place at the expiration of the previous pact. But he acknowledged there was work to be done to repair the league’s relationship with its on-field talent.

“One of the things I’m supposed to do is promote a good relationship with our players. I’ve tried to do that. I think that I have not been successful in that,” he said.

He said the league compromised on its proposed 14-team playoffs and made other concessions to MLB players.

“I do believe — I hope — that the players will see the effort we made to address their concerns in this agreement as an olive branch,” said Manfred.

Source : Baseball – The Japan Times