Evan Drellich of The Athletic reported on December 15 that MLB and the MLBPA are not expected to talk about core economic issues at stake in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations until January. While the sides are expected to meet face-to-face on December 16, the topics on the agenda will not include the Competitive Balance Tax (CBT), service time, and playoff expansion.

Baseball does not have a clock, but it seems as though both sides are trying run out a proverbial clock in these negotiations. The line in the sand is likely February 1, as if the lockout is not over by then, spring training may not start on time. It will take at least two weeks from the end of the lockout for unsigned players to find new teams, and players to make arrangements to get to Florida or Arizona by the middle of the month.

Both sides likely see February 1 as a leverage point. The owners hope that the players will start to fear a shortened season, reduced pay, and put pressure on the union leaders to strike a deal. The players might see that date, and the weeks after, as increasing owners’ fears of  lost revenue (television money, etc.), or perhaps worse, a full 162 games with several single-admission doubleheaders, which represents a loss of gate revenue.

According to Drellich, both sides are currently in a waiting game for the other to blink and make the next economic proposal. The union’s chief negotiator, Bruce Meyer, feels that it is incumbent on the owners to make the next offer. From the article:

“We’ve attempted to follow the usual process making proposals,” Meyer said Dec. 2. “We made a major proposal in Dallas this week, which in our view, gave the league significant economic benefits. The league chose not to make a counter. But we stand ready, as Tony (Clark) said, to continue negotiating.”

Of course, Commissioner Rob Manfred has a different take:

“if it (the owners’ most recent proposal) had been accepted, I believe would have provided a pretty clear path to make an agreement.”

So, the game sits and waits. The fans sit and wait. Players have grayed-out images as avatars on Twitter, team websites speak of promotions in code, such as “Third Baseman Bobblehead Day”, and baseball television programming has resorted to having segments about the happenings in other sports.

At this point, it’s hard to tell if the season will start on time. Will we see the one/two punch of Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer on March 31 and April 2, or sometime thereafter? There’s common speculation that the lockout will last into February, and spring training will not start on time. Then, with pressuring mounting on both sides, perhaps a deal is reached later in February with camps opening in early March. That would leave open the possibility of shortened grapefruit and cactus league seasons, but a full regular season (maybe with minor schedule adjustments).

The clock, the does not exist in baseball, is ticking. The ticking is still soft, but will grow louder soon. Let’s hope it drives the players and owners to the bargaining table so they make an agreement and we can resume baseball normalcy.