MLB Delays Deadline for Full Regular Season

MLB has pushed back the deadline for a full 162-game season for the second time after both sides failed to reach an agreement, despite incremental progress.

Greg Lovett / USA TODAY NETWORK

For the second consecutive week, MLB has pushed back their deadline to cancel the full 162-game season. After progress was made during negotiations with the MLBPA on Tuesday, Wednesday has now become the deadline for a 162-game regular season.

The negotiations happened over two meetings, one on Tuesday morning with no big takeaways, and the second coming in the afternoon, which started following the arrival of league negotiators Dan Halem, Morgan Sword, and Pat Houlihan.

A new proposal was not made until Tuesday night when the league proposed an offer that featured luxury tax thresholds starting at $230 million and increasing to $242 million over the course of the agreement, a pre-arbitration pool of $40 million and a minimum salary of $700,000 which would increase to $770,000 by 2026.

MLB’s proposal, sources tell me and @Ken_Rosenthal:

• Luxury tax thresholds: 230, 232, 236, 240, 242⁰
• Prearb pool: 40m, flat over time
• Pool counts against CBT (1.33m per team)
•Minimum salary: 700, 715, 730, 750, 770

(cont’d)

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) March 9, 2022

Other aspects of the offer included instituting an international draft, which would step in for the to-be-removed qualifying offer system, per Drellich.

Going into the negotiations, both sides were still divided on the luxury tax by a considerable distance. The owners' most recent proposal from Monday ended with a gap of $25 million dollars at the end of the five-year plan regarding the luxury tax.

However, the deal proposed on Tuesday night would see the luxury tax gap narrow by four million dollars, so progress between the two sides is happening regarding key issues.

According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, MLBPA will wait until Wednesday to officially submit their counter-proposal. With that, MLB's deadline for a full 162-game regular season shifts to Wednesday as well.

So the MLB deadline shifts to tomorrow, which is actually today, to reach an agreement before cancelling another week of games.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) March 9, 2022

If both sides are unable to reach an agreement during their next day of negotiations, the league is still willing to cancel another week of games, as they told the players on Monday.

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