Baseball Lockout

After a long series of deadlines, threats and delays, a tentative agreement was reached and a full 162-game season should begin on April 7.

“This negotiation started a long way apart — and in case anyone missed the memo — they did come with a very, very broad agenda for change. A week after Manfred called off the games, M.L.B. tried again to facilitate a deal with a new deadline. In negotiating this agreement, the club owners and the players pushed each other to the brink. Realizing that significant changes to the system would be tense and full of brinkmanship, the union spent years preparing for this fight against M.L.B. owners, who ran an estimated $11 billion-a-year business before the pandemic. Although a top union subcommittee voted 8-0 against the deal, the union’s larger executive committee voted 26 to 12 overall in favor of it. In the end, a full schedule will be retrofitted into the existing calendar, with the previously canceled games being made up on off-days and with nine-inning doubleheaders scattered throughout the season, which will end only three days later than normal. There was a lot of uncertainty at a point in time when there’s a lot of uncertainty in the world. Players remained engaged and unified from beginning to end, and in the process re-energized our fraternity.” With the agreement, baseball will get to approach something closer to a normal season for the first time since 2019. He then tried to strike a more conciliatory tone with players — and fans who watched the labor fight drag out in public and compromise spring training. “Being back on the field is exciting for owners, players, fans as well,” Gerrit Cole, a Yankees star pitcher and a member of a union subcommittee that worked on the deal, said in a phone interview. The five-year collective bargaining agreement will increase pay for young players and better incentivize teams to compete, among other provisions.