Blue Jays: Manfred cancels first two series; lockout rages on

After the MLBPA rejected the ‘best and final’ offer from the MLB prior to today’s 5:00 pm deadline, Commissioner Rob Manfred announced that the first two series of the regular season were cancelled, effectively casting doubt for a full 162 game schedule for the Blue Jays.

This means the Jays’ first games of the season are ‘currently’ slated to start April 8th, hosting the Texas Rangers for three games before travelling to New York to face the Yankees in a four-game series.

I use the word ‘currently’ with loose ends, especially since it looks like CBA negotiations could go for a long time after the two sides appear to be very far apart on some important topics that neither side appears willing to budge on.

I can honestly say that this sucks, just flat out sucks. The Blue Jays were shaping up to be a strong contender this year with the extension of Jose Berrios, the signing of Kevin Gausman, and the recent emergence of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, and Alek Manoah on the big league stage that looks like they are just getting started.

What makes it even more bittersweet is that the front office appeared to have been given the green light in terms of expanding payroll, with the club already tied to a few premium free agents like Corey Seager and Freddie Freeman prior to the lockout (and before Seager signed with the Rangers).

“I want to assure our fans that our failure to reach an agreement was not due to a lack of effort by either party,” said Manfred, acknowledging both sides and their work yesterday and today to try and get a deal done before their self-imposed and completely unnecessary timeline. The Commissioner had previously said, “I see missing games as a disastrous outcome for this industry, and we’re committed to making an agreement in an effort to avoid that,” and yet they refused to budge on quite a few topics to avoid that outcome.

After two days of back and forth negotiating, the MLBPA has rejected the latest offer from the MLB and the Blue Jays’ first two series have been cancelled.

On the flip side, the union made their own statement after Manfred’s cancellation announcement, “against the backdrop of growing revenues and record profits, we are seeking nothing more than a fair agreement… what Rob Manfred characterized as a ‘defensive lockout’ is, in fact, the culmination of a decades-long attempt by owners to break our player fraternity.” The players have apparently begun to leave Florida and there is currently no timeline for a return to the negotiating table.

If you thought the offseason was slow-moving and painful, it appears that Blue Jays and baseball fans from across the league will now have to hunker down and keep watching the headlines to see when the next round of negotiations is set to begin. Whether you side with the owners or the players, one thing is for certain: the only people really losing are the fans.

Let’s figure this out. For the sake of Major League Baseball.