JUPITER, Fla. — A deadline Major League Baseball owners created to generate urgency and movement in their negotiations with the players’ union did enough of both late Monday night for the owners to delay that deadline after all, at least for a day.
More than 13 hours of meetings, including multiple short ones well after sunset, saw the sides make enough progress toward a new Collective Bargaining Agreement that the owners paused their promise to delay opening day and insist on cancelling regular season games.
A source cautioned early in the evening against too much optimism, suggesting progress had been made but the sides remained far apart on multiple key issues.