Monday’s bargaining meetings between Major League Baseball and the players’ union in Jupiter, Florida, started at noon and lasted deep into the early morning hours. The league has insisted that February 28th was the date that a deal would have to be done to avoid losing regular season games for weeks now, but showed zero sign of urgency until ramping up talks over the weekend. There wasn’t any optimism coming into Monday’s epic face-off. Yet finally, against the deadline, the owners engaged and on every front there was progress, though issues still remain unresolved.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today was the first to report some major concessions developing from both the players and owners’ most recent positions.