It is expected that the start of this season’s MLB trial game will be possible only following March 9.
The MLB Secretariat, which is negotiating with the MLB Players’ Union on behalf of 30 clubs on the revision of the labor-management agreement, announced on the 26th (Korean time) that “the demonstration game will not be held from March 6th to 8th.”
Earlier, the MLB Secretariat predicted that the opening schedule of the existing demonstration game on the 19th would be postponed by one week, and that it would only start on March 6.
However, as labor-management negotiations proceeded sluggishly without any significant results, the trial game schedule was further delayed.
Due to the repeated postponement of the trial game schedule, the start of the regular league scheduled for April 1 is expected to be unavoidable.
According to schedule, team training and demonstration games should be held in sequence four weeks before the start of the regular season.
Each club had to hold a spring camp in mid-February and start a demonstration game on the 27th of this month, but it is currently impossible due to the MLB lockout due to the failure to revise the labor-management agreement and the failure to reach an agreement between the labor and management.
Accordingly, the club set the negotiation deadline for the following Monday (February 28, Korean time) and March 1 (Korean time) for the start of the regular season as the deadline for negotiations.
The players’ union also did not agree on the club’s unilateral negotiation deadline, but acknowledged that negotiations need to be accelerated in order to start the league on a regular basis.
The MLB Secretariat is also focusing on the MLB labor-management negotiations to be held at the Jupiter Roger Dean Stadium in Florida, where the spring camp training ground is located, from the 22nd to normalize the league.
According to local media such as ESPN, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred attended the labor-management negotiations held on that day and heard the opinions of the club and the players’ union.
Although differences in positions have not yet been narrowed on the key agendas of the minimum wage, wealth tax (equal competition tax), and income distribution, it is believed that there has been progress in discussions between labor and management on the issue of the draft selection right lottery.
/yunhap news
ⓒ Hankyung.com, unauthorized reprinting and redistribution prohibited
