2022 MLB Lockout Update: When Will The Baseball Lockout End?

The MLB and the players association are still not in agreement on their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and on the eighty-first day of the lockout, there seems to be no end in sight.

It was announced late last week that all Spring Training games are scheduled until March 5 but they are going to be meeting daily to ramp up their negotiations with the hopes that no actual regular-season games are in jeopardy of being missed.  

What Is Happening Now?

Beginning on February 21, it appears that both sides are going to be meeting every single day to hammer out the details that they seem miles apart on right now. The biggest issue that seems to be continuously happening is their meetings have been cut extremely short as in Thursday's meeting, the two sides met for only 15 minutes. 

The deadline seems to appear to be that the two sides need to agree on this Collective Bargaining Agreement by February 28 as MLB stated to have a four-week Spring Training and keep March 31 as the official Opening Day of the 2022 MLB season. 

What is the Likelihood that Baseball Misses Games?

There are growing concerns that we will not be seeing 162 baseball games this season for the second time in three seasons due to no agreement right now. Players are not paid their salary for Spring Training as they are only paid during the regular season so there is no financial advantage to agreeing right now. However, there is going to need to be a ramp-up period whenever an agreement happens as well as a free-agency period as we still have some major free agents on the market that did not sign prior to the lockout being put on the players back in December. 

This is the most critical week as the owners have been acting like high school students and waiting until the deadline to begin on the assignment. One of the most important things that are causing a hold up is the competitive balance tax (CBT) as the owners want to increase the penalties, thus suppressing the chances that they would go over that number and use that number as a hard tax to avoid paying a premium for going over it. 

It definitely does not seem like the two sides are just arguing for the fun of it as they have agreed on some small things such as a universal designated hitter in both leagues and an idea of playoff expansion so it’s not all doom and gloom. However, a deal has a chance to happen this week because if there is no deal then the negotiations continue as they decide on how much of a salary for a non-162 game season and when they can decide on a beginning. 

Both sides should understand how it would look if they fail to come to an agreement and the potential problems that would ensue if they do not agree before March 31 is compromised as Opening Day. They both have very intelligent people on both sides and have a chance to come to an agreement before this February 28 arbitrary deadline.

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