The regular season has officially been postponed.
*This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly.
On Tuesday, March 1, leaders with the MLB Players' Association rejected the "best and final" offer to end the lockout before the deadline of 5 p.m. (ET).
MLB has officially canceled its first two regular-season series as a result.
"I had hoped against hope I wouldn't have to have this press conference where I am going to cancel some regular season games," commissioner Rob Manfred said Tuesday afternoon. "We worked hard to avoid an outcome that's bad for our fans, bad for our players and bad for our clubs. Our failure to reach an agreement was not due to a lack of effort by either party."
The final proposal from the MLB featured the following:
- Raising the luxury tax threshold from $210 million to $220 million in each of the next three seasons—$224 million in 2025 and $230 in 2026.
- Players asked for $238 million in 2022, $244 million in 2023, $250 million in 2024, $256 million in 2025, and $263 in 2026.
- Increasing its offer for a new bonus pool for pre-arbitration players from $25 million to $30 million.
- The union dropped from $115 million to $85 million for this year, with $5 million yearly increases.
- Raising the minimum salary from $570,500 to $700,000 this year—up from its previous offer of $675,000—and including $10,000 yearly increases.
- The union asked for $725,000 in 2022, $745,000 in 2023, $765,000 in 2024, and increases for 2025 and 2026.
- Offering to have the five top picks in the amateur draft determined by a lottery.
- Expanding the postseason to 12 teams.
"We thought there was a path to a deal last night and that both sides were closing in on the major issues," an unnamed MLB official said before the last offer was submitted. "They couldn’t make us a CBT proposal (competitive balance tax) last night, so we agreed to extend the deadline to exhaust every option.
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