MLB quickly reneged on its promise (from only two days ago) to present a counteroffer to the Players Association. Instead, it requested federal mediation, which is nothing but a lame public relations stunt.
Giants pitcher Alex Wood asked: "How can MLB request for there to be a mediator from the Federal Government to help with negotiations when they literally haven't even done any negotiating up to this point?"
That seems like a reasonable question. After MLB imposed the lockout on December 2, 2021, it spent six weeks refusing to negotiate. Over the past three months, an unimpressive total of five hours has been spent discussing the issues.