MLB commissioner Rob Manfred -- Losing games to lockout would be 'disastrous outcome'

ORLANDO, Fla. — Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred called the possibility of missing regular-season games amid the league's lockout of players «a disastrous outcome» but called himself an «optimist» and said, «I believe we will have an agreement in time to play our regular schedule.»

Speaking Thursday at the end of the quarterly owners meetings at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando, Manfred declined to officially postpone the beginning of spring training despite the large chasm between the league and players on a new collective bargaining agreement that almost ensures pitchers and catchers won't report to camps next week.

MLB plans to make a proposal to the MLB Players Association on Saturday when the sides meet in New York for the fifth time since Manfred locked out the players Dec. 2.

«You're always one breakthrough away from making an agreement,» Manfred said. «That's the art of this process. Somebody makes a move. And that's why we'll make additional moves on Saturday that creates flexibility on the other side and what seemed like a big gap on this topic or that topic isn't such a big gap anymore.»

Baseball is 70 days into its first work stoppage in more than a quarter-century. While it's the second-longest stoppage in baseball history in time elapsed — behind only the 232-day strike that prompted the cancellation of the 1994 World Series — no regular-season games have been lost on account of it.

The fear of missing games — and the fallout from such a scenario — is the likeliest factor to expedite talks between the league and union. If the parties can't agree to a new CBA by early next month, it could threaten the scheduled March 31 Opening Day.

Talks between the sides have been few and far between since the