The Major League Baseball season will not be 162 games long this year, as commissioner Rob Manfred is now cancelling contests after the league and its players failed to ratify a new collective bargaining agreement, TMZ reports.
According to the report, Manfred made the announcement on Tuesday afternoon following days of negotiation talks in Florida .telling reporters, “I am going to cancel some regular-season games.”
“We worked hard to avoid an outcome that’s bad for our fans, bad for our players, and bad for our clubs,” Manfred said.
The Major League Baseball season commissioner said he will cancel the first two series of the season and insinuated there could be far more cancellations if the two sides don’t strike a deal soon.
Manfred said both the league and its players worked tirelessly over the last week to try to get a deal done in order to avoid this outcome and he said the Major League Baseball season provided a proposal that he believed was more than fair.
“The unfortunate thing,” he said, “maybe the most unfortunate thing is that agreement, the one we’ve offered to our players, offered huge benefits for our fans and for our players.”
No word on where talks go from here and when the parties will sit at a table again, but if the negotiations stall again, Big League action could be paused indefinitely.
Major League Baseball Players Association Reacts:
The Major League Baseball Players Association said Tuesday it’s “disgusted” by Manfred’s decision to cancel games.
The MLBPA went on to say it believes Manfred and league owners are trying to “break our Player fraternity.”
“As in the past,” the MLBPA added, “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.”