(Reuters) – Major League Baseball (MLB) and its players’ union did not reach agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) by the deadline but ESPN and other U.S. media reported progress had been made and an agreement could be reached later on Tuesday.
The lockout is the league’s first work stoppage since the players’ strike of 1994-95, with service time toward free agency, playoff expansion, luxury tax and a salary floor among the key issues in the current dispute.
The MLB and its players’ body held discussions until 2:30 a.m. EST on Tuesday, with The Athletic, ESPN and others saying that the two organizations had set a new deadline of 5 p.m. to reach a new labor agreement.
A source told Reuters late last month that MLB would cancel games if a labor agreement was not finalised by Monday. The source added salary would not be paid for the missed games.
Monday’s deadline had been chosen because it would allow for camps to open on March 3 and provide for four weeks of spring training before the scheduled March 31 opening day of the 162-game regular season.
A month of spring training is needed to protect the health and safety of players, the source had said.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
