MLB Lockout Cancels Braves Spring Training Series Against Rays

ATLANTA, GA – The Braves will delay the run to defend their World Championship season after a labor dispute between players and owners put a pause to the start of Spring play.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announced the first week of games is canceled in a Tuesday evening press conference in Florida after failing to ink a collective bargaining agreement with the players union. The canceled games are not expected to be rescheduled. Spring training games won't start before March 12, the MLB said, and regular-season games won't start any earlier than April 7.

So far, that means the Braves are still on track to play their April 7 home opener against the Cincinnati Reds at Truist Field. The Spring series scheduled to start March 2 against the Tampa Bay Rays won’t be played, however.

Daylong negotiations on Monday went beyond the midnight, Feb. 28 deadline which was extended through Tuesday at 5 p.m., to no avail. MLB owners and the Major League Baseball Players Association reached an impasse.

“We worked hard to avoid an outcome that is bad for our fans, bad for our players and bad for our clubs,” Manfred told the media Tuesday evening in Jupiter, Fla., where the negotiations were taking place. “I want to assure our fans that our failure to reach an agreement was not due to a lack of effort on the part of either party.”

In a statement, the MLBPA said they wanted a “fair agreement” to continue play.

“From the beginning of these negotiations, Players’ objectives have been consistent — to promote competition, provide fair compensation for young players, and to uphold the integrity of our market system,” the Players Association said. “Against the backdrop of growing revenues and record profits, we are seeking nothing more than a fair agreement.”

MLB made its “best offer” before the close of the deadline, league reporter Mark Feinsand reports. MLBPA’s rejection of that offer forced the cancellations. Manfred said the league wanted to have a four-week Spring Training to allow players time to get proper conditioning, siting the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and the injuries that resulted.

“The clubs and our owners fully understand just how important it is to our millions of fans that we get the game on the field as soon as possible,” Manfred said. “To that end, we want to bargain and we want a deal with the Players Association as quickly as possible."

MLB’s final offer would have meant nearly $500 million in additional compensation for pre-arbitration players through a 23-percent increase in minimum salary and a $30 million pre-arbitration bonus pool, Feinsand reports. It would have also increased the competitive balance tax threshold to $220 million, a jump from $214 million in 2021. The MLBPA was reportedly seeking an $85 million bonus pool for pre-arbitration players and a competitive balance tax threshold starting at $238 million.

Now, the regular season likely cannot start before March 31.

But the Players Association sited efforts on the part of team owners to shut down player advancement.

“What Rob Manfred characterized as a ‘defensive lockout’ is, in fact, the culmination of a decades-long attempt by owners to break our Player fraternity,” the MLBPA statement said. “As in the past, this effort will fail. We are united and committed to negotiating a fair deal that will improve the sport for players, fans, and everyone who loves our game.”

In a letter to fans, Manfred vowed to close a deal between players and the league, citing 1994 when there was no agreement in place and a walk-out ended in August without playoffs or a World Series.

“The clubs and our owners fully understand just how important it is to our millions of fans that we get the game on the field as soon as possible,” he wrote. “To that end, we want to bargain and we want a deal with the Players Association as quickly as possible.”