Earlier this week, the owner-imposed MLB lockout continued to the point that commissioner Rob Manfred announced the first two series of the 2022 season have been cancelled. Unless a deal is reached here within the next few days, more cancellations will follow. Unsurprisingly, the two sides (MLB, which is essentially the owners and office of the commissioner; and MLBPA, which is the Major League Baseball Players Association) took a bit of a breather after the midnight 5 p.m. ET Tuesday deadline.
Thursday, things quietly started back up, though on a much smaller scale. Lead MLBPA negotiator Bruce Meyer and MLB deputy commissioner Dan Halem met.
This meeting was termed as an "informal one-on-one" by Evan Drellich of The Athletic. Knowing that, we shouldn't expect parking-lot play-by-play from reporters on hand, including pictures of representatives from the two sides walking back and forth for 20-minute meetings. In fact, it seems like the two sides would like to actively avoid that type of theater moving forward. Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post, who has been very plugged in throughout this process, reported that she "got the sense from conversations yesterday that both sides want to reduce the media-circus aspect of this process moving forward."
Though it was rather entertaining in the moment to monitor so much back-and-forth over the course of two days -- frankly, it probably was also a nice illustration that we could use actual baseball action instead of this nonsense -- it's surely a good thing moving forward if they stop negotiating through the media.
For now, we'll hope the two sides can come to an agreement as soon as possible. Here are the things to know about the first week of cancelled games and the fallout.
