Major League Baseball cancels spring training games as lockout bites

Major League Baseball on Friday canceled the first week of spring training games through 4 March, in the first public acknowledgement of disruption caused by the lockout.

The announcement came with the work stoppage in its 79th day, and a day after talks between management and the Major League Baseball Players Association lasted just 15 minutes.

Negotiators are set to resume talks on Monday. MLB said members of the owners’ negotiating committee will attend the seventh session on the central issues of the dispute since the lockout began on 2 December.

Spring training was to have started this week and the exhibition schedule had been set to begin on 26 February. There were 16 games set for that day, including the World Series champions, the Atlanta Braves, playing the Boston Red Sox in Florida and the Cleveland Guardians taking on the Cincinnati Reds in Arizona.

“We regret that, without a collective bargaining agreement in place, we must postpone the start of spring training games until no earlier than Saturday 5 March,” MLB said in a statement.

“All 30 clubs are unified in their strong desire to bring players back to the field and fans back to the stands.”

MLB told the union it thinks 28 February is the last possible date to reach an agreement that would allow a timely start to the season. The union did not respond.

The players’ association was discussing whether players will attend the next session of talks.

For the most part, owners and players have joined bargaining by Zoom. The Colorado Rockies chief executive, Dick Monfort, chairman of the owners’ labor policy committee, and free agent reliever Andrew Miller both attended the 24 January session, the first in-person bargaining during the lockout.

“We are committed to