March 11, 2022.-The lockout is over and baseball is back. Players and owners agreed on the main points of a new collective bargaining agreement on Thursday, and spring training is expected to begin on Sunday, the Theathletic.com website said in a news release.
The commissioner’s office and the Major League Baseball Players Association reached an agreement Thursday on the 99th day of the owners’ lockout to end the sport’s first work stoppage in 26 years.
Free agency and all other business in the sport, including trades, can resume immediately. As contentious as the lockout was and how grim the scene sometimes looked, the timing of the deal prevents worst-case scenarios for the sport.
In the end, baseball is still expected to have a full 162 games scheduled, with some games rescheduled and the season finally starting later than originally planned. Spring training will be shorter than usual, but the games avoided doing significant damage to the sport with a prolonged work stoppage during the season.
