After 2-Day MLB/MLBPA Meeting Still No Deal In Sight Or Starting Game Dates

FLORIDA — After Tampa Bay Rays' fans and Miami Marlins' fans hoped to hear good news about the MLB lockout being lifted Wednesday night, Commissioner Robert D. Manfred and team owners said not yet.

Fans and players initially anticipated being back in their stadiums watching or playing baseball by at least April 8 after no deals reached between MLB. and Major League Players Association (MLPA) at the prior longstanding meeting. Empty fields and empty seats remain at the Tropicana Field and LoanDepot Park.

Following Wednesday's meeting, games are canceled through April 14, the day before Jackie Robinson Day. If a compromise between the opposing organizations is not reached at their next meeting, an annual traditional MLB day that celebrates Robinson's debut in the big leagues—April 15, 1947—the day color barriers were broken in professional baseball by Robinson, a Black man, who played on the field as the first Black member of the former Brooklyn Dodgers and the first Black player in the MLB.

Jackie Robinson Day was founded in 2004. Players, managers, coaches, umpires and all on-field personnel wear Robinson's iconic no. 42 during games April 15 and April 16.

If an agreement is reached soon, the Rays are slated to play the Chicago White Sox for their first regular-season game on April 15 in the Windy City, and the Marlins will play the Phillies at LoanDepot on April 14.

In a regularly-behaved baseball season, the Rays would have played the Detroit Tigers on Thursday during spring training, and the Marlins would have played the New York Mets.

Meanwhile, MLB has inched closer to meeting MLBPA's beginning salary pay demands for newer and younger players. According to CBS, MLBA wants the starting pay to be at least $725,000 increasing to $780,000 in 2026; MLB has so far agreed to increase the starting pay in 2022 at $710,000 to $770,00 in 2026. Starting pay in 2021 is a minimum of $570,550.

MLB and MLBPA remain in disagreement after the recent two-day meeting about how much to pay players during this shortened baseball season. "Manfred can not unilaterally implement a shortened season with prorated pay," CBS Sports reported. "MLB and the MLBPA will have to agree to those terms and that's another layer of complexity on top of an already complex negotiation. Bottom line, this just got a lot messier."