MLB negotiators set a Monday deadline for reaching a labor agreement that would allow the season to start on time. That didn’t happen after a long day of negotiations, so they pushed the target back to Tuesday by 5 p.m. That deadline also passed with no deal. Players are still locked out and, this time, MLB didn’t announce another self-imposed deadline.
I won’t bore you with the details about the issues that separate the two sides. Team owners want to preserve the concessions they won in the last two labor deals. Players want to claw back gains they’d made before then while taking aim at decreasing salaries amid growing revenues. The two sides eventually will hash out those issues, and then the Braves can begin their defense of the World Series title.
But the reason negotiations have dragged on for nearly a year and counting is that players don’t trust team owners to deal with them in good faith. That’s with good reason. For decades, team owners have repeatedly been caught lying about their finances. In the 1980s, they colluded to hold down player salaries, and one of them, Bud Selig, would later become MLB commissioner.
