MLB cancels opening day as lockout talks with players collapse

MLB has canceled opening day, with commissioner Rob Manfred announcing on Tuesday the league will lose regular-season games over a labor dispute for the first time in 27 years after acrimonious lockout talks collapsed in the hours before management’s deadline.

Manfred said he is canceling the first two series of a season that was set to begin on 31 March, dropping the schedule from 162 games to 156 games at most. Manfred said the league and union have not made plans for future negotiations. Players won’t be paid for missed games.

“My deepest hope is we get an agreement quickly,” Manfred said. “I’m really disappointed we didn’t make an agreement.”

After the sides made progress during 13 negotiating sessions over nearly 17 hours on Monday, the league sent the players’ association a “best and final offer” on Tuesday on the ninth straight day of negotiations.

Players rejected that offer, setting the stage for MLB to follow through on its threat to cancel opening day.

“Not a particularly productive day today,” Manfred said.

At 5.10pm ET, Manfred issued a statement that many fans had been dreading: Nothing to look forward to on opening day, normally a spring standard of renewal for baseball fans throughout the US and Canada.

The ninth work stoppage in baseball history will be the fourth that causes regular season games to be canceled.

“The concerns of our fans are at the very top of our consideration list,” Manfred said.

The lockout, in its 90th day, will plunge a sport staggered by the coronavirus pandemic and afflicted by numerous on-field issues into a self-inflicted hiatus over the inability of players and owners to divide a $10bn industry. By losing regular-season games, scrutiny will fall even more intensely on Manfred,