A week after Commissioner Rob Manfred, with a telling smile on his face, announced he was cancelling the first two series of the regular season due to the ongoing lockout, the two sides are still without an agreement on a new CBA and MLB released a statement cancelling another two series. In total, the first two weeks of the regular season have now been wiped out.
Locally, the White Sox will miss a road trip to Detroit to battle the Tigers and a home series against the Mariners at Guaranteed Rate Field. If nothing else gets canceled, their new Opening Day would be on Friday, April 15 against the Rays. The Cubs would lose a four-game series at Wrigley Field against the Brewers and a quick tilt against the Pirates in Pittsburgh.
So where do things go from here? Who knows? The owners declined to counter to the MLBPA’s last, seemingly reasonable offer about an international draft. How soon negotiations will start again is unknown at this point. The longer this goes on, the longer I feel it will go on.