JUPITER, Fla. — Negotiators for locked-out players and owners held a series of short and more frequent meetings that stretched into Sunday night as talks intensified a day ahead of Major League Baseball’s deadline to salvage March 31 openers.
Teams and owners narrowed some differences Friday and Saturday. Entering the 88th day of the work stoppage they were still far apart on big issues that include luxury tax thresholds and rates, the size of the new bonus pool for pre-arbitration players and minimum salaries.
Some of those issues were in play during negotiations in which management wants the union’s agreement to expand the postseason from 10 teams to 14, two more than players have thus far been willing to accept.