Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred canceled 93 more games Wednesday, appearing to close the remaining chance to play a full 162-game schedule and threatening locked-out players with loss of salary and service time. After the sides narrowed many economic differences and became bogged down over management's attempt to gain an international amateur draft, the AP reports, MLB announced two additional series had been canceled through April 13. That raised the total to 184 games wiped out from the 2,430-game regular season, or 7.6%. "Because of the logistical realities of the calendar, another two series are being removed from the schedule, meaning that opening day is postponed until April 14," Manfred said.
Opening day was to have been March 31. The union's latest counterproposal was hand-delivered by chief negotiator Bruce Meyer to MLB's office. While the gaps slimmed on the luxury tax, pre-arbitration bonus pool and minimum salary, management continued to press for an international amateur draft. Players have repeatedly rejected the proposal since it was made on July 28. "The owners' decision to cancel additional games is completely unnecessary," the union said in a statement. "After making a set of comprehensive proposals to the league earlier this afternoon and being told substantive responses were forthcoming, players have yet to hear back."
MLB said it would not make a new counteroffer unless the union first chose one of three options: agreeing to the international draft in exchange for the elimination of direct amateur draft pick compensation for qualified free agents; keeping compensation in exchange for MLB dropping the international draft proposal; or dropping compensation while giving players until Nov. 15 to accept an international draft starting in 2024 while giving MLB the right to reopen the labor contract after the 2024 season if players fail to accept the draft. The last alternative would leave open the possibility of another labor conflict in less than three years. Players rejected all three options and instead proposed to drop compensation for this year, have the sides agree to a draft by Nov. 15 or then revert to compensation for the 2022-23 offseason.
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