The good news: MLB players and owners had a negotiating session today.
The bad news: MLB players and owners had a negotiating session today.
You did not have to call a psychic hotline to know in front of this session that not much progress would be made. According to the early reports, the players were mostly unimpressed with the proposal they received from Major League baseball. This is to be expected. Neither side is going to give up too much this early in negotiations.
The next step is a big one. Players will have to formally respond to the proposal and at that point, it will be clear just how far apart the two sides are. It’s a safe bet that it’s an ocean, not a lake, that separates the players from the owners.
It feels like any time the two sides get together, it just results in more anger. At some point this is going to have to change and actual negotiation is going to take place. Each side will have to be willing to give things up. That’s how negotiation works.
It’s really easy to get down reading the reports of today’s session. The calendar shows that pitchers and catchers are supposed to report next month and there is seemingly no momentum towards a collective bargaining getting done. Most feel that no urgency will be felt until there is actual risk of losing games.
There is common ground. Most importantly, neither side wants to lose games and certainly neither side wants to lose a season. We can all hope that both sides will prioritize that and baseball will be played as scheduled on Opening Day.