FLORIDA, USA — It's the worst gift that keeps on giving. Major League Baseball says it has canceled another round of spring training games as owners and players continue to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
The soonest spring training games can be played is March 18, according to the league.
Here in the Tampa Bay area, more canceled games impact more than just the players and fans. Florida is home to the Grapefruit League during spring training. No games mean no fans in the area to spend money at shops and restaurants.
Friday's update comes just three days after Commissioner Rob Manfred announced the league would be canceling regular-season games for the first time in 27 years.
With owners and players unable to agree on a contract to replace the CBA that expired Dec. 1, Manfred canceled the first two series for each of the 30 teams, cutting each club's schedule from 162 games to likely 156 at most. A total of 91 games were erased.
Manfred vowed players will not receive salary or major league service for games missed, exacerbating already visceral anger of the roughly 1,200 players locked into a contest of will against 30 controlling owners. Manfred maintained daily interleague play made rescheduling impossible.
The first 86 games of the 1973 season were canceled by a strike over pension negotiations, the 1981 season was fractured by a 50-day midseason strike over free agency compensation rules that canceled 713 games, and a strike that started in August 1994 over management’s attempt to gain a salary cap canceled the final 669 regular-season games and the World Series. It also led to a three-week delay of the 1995 season, when schedules were cut from 162 games to 144.
The most contentious proposals in this current battle involve luxury tax thresholds, the size of a new bonus pool for pre-arbitration players and minimum salaries.
MLB proposed raising the tax threshold from $210 million to $220 million in each of the next three seasons, $224 million in 2025 and $230 million in 2026.
MLB offered $25 million annually for a new bonus pool for pre-arbitration players, and the union $85 million this year, with $5 million yearly increases.
MLB proposed raising the minimum salary from $570,500 to $700,000 this year, with increases of $10,000 annually, and the union asked for $725,000 this year, $745,000 in 2023, $765,000 in 2024 and increases for 2025 and 2026 based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners.
