MLB postpones spring training games through March 5

As the MLB lockout has dragged on into mid-February, nearly everyone had accepted one truth: there was no way that baseball was going to have a full slate of spring training games. Pitchers and catchers were supposed to report earlier this week and while things in the CBA negotiations could accelerate quickly, it was never realistic to expect that spring training wouldn’t be adversely impacted despite Rob Manfred’s attempts to avoid saying so outright.

However, with the negotiations nowhere, MLB finally recognized and acknowledged reality.

The spring training part of MLB’s announcement was hardly a surprise. However, more noteworthy is that MLB also announced that starting Monday, the league and MLBPA are going to be sitting down daily to try to make real progress towards a deal. Some observers would suggest that the sides should have been doing that from the beginning, but neither side seemed interested (in particular, the owners) in making concessions until they were up against a real deadline and regular season games were at stake. It looks like we are at that point.