Major League Baseball Owners Are Willing to Miss a Month of Games

The Athletic’s Evan Drellich, Ken Rosenthal, and Fabian Ardaya are reporting Major League Baseball’s owners told the players that they are willing to miss a month worth of games from the 2022 season.

MLB today indicated a willingness to miss a month of games and took a more threatening tone than yesterday, sources briefed on the day’s first meeting between MLB and the Players Association tell me, @Ken_Rosenthal and @FabianArdaya. Full context of conversation not yet known.

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 28, 2022

If you will forgive the pun, the owners have shown they’re willing to play hardball in these negotiations. This statement, coupled with Chelsea Janes’s report that the owners and players are still far apart on almost every issue, does not bode well for baseball this season.

The players have seemingly “lost" the previous two collective bargaining negotiations and have constantly acquiesced to ownership in the past. These CBA negotiations have become a proverbial line in the sand. The biggest names in baseball are standing firm in their support for younger players getting their fair share and see this as their way of fighting for the health of the game.

Over at FanDuel Sportsbook, the Los Angeles Dodgers are favored to win the 2022 World Series at +600 (if it happens).