Although you would probably never get anyone to admit it, the least of which is MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, today, Saturday, February 12, 2022, is the single most important day of the off-season.

How so, you ask?

It’s simple, really. Manfred, on behalf of MLB team owners, and Tony Clark, on behalf of the MLB Players Association, are scheduled to resume negotiations towards establishing a new Collective Bargaining Agreement on Saturday; this less than 48 hours before pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report for Spring Training 2022, with position players scheduled to do so exactly one week later.

Simply put, should the two sides not agree on a new CBA today, neither is likely to occur; which, in turn, puts the March 31 scheduled opening of the 2022 regular season also at risk of being delayed.

Manfred, who openly admitted to the media on Thursday that he is “an optimist,” told reporters that despite the date on the calendar, the “…status of Spring Training is no change right now.” He quickly added, however, that missing any regular season games would be “…a disastrous outcome for the industry.”

The problem, of course, is that if an agreement is not reached during today’s scheduled talks, that “no change right now” thing goes right out the window.

Stay tuned…

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UPDATE:

Per ESPN’s Joon Lee, today’s meeting between MLB and the MLBPA lasted less than an hour. There is no deal.

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