According to multiple reports, an informal one-on-one meeting between MLB lead negotiator Dan Halem and MLBPA lead negotiator Bruce Meyer will occur on Thursday, two days after MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced that Opening Day and the first two series of the season have been cancelled.
It's unclear how constructive these talks will be. MLB owners and the players' union failed to finalize a new CBA ahead of the league's deadline on Tuesday, and consequently, MLB's self-imposed lockout means that ballgames will be lost due to labor issues for the first time since 1995. Critical economic issues still need to be negotiated, and MLB analyst Ryan Spaeder believes that MLB has long been prepared to keep this season delayed as long as possible.
"There's a reason that they went 68 days without speaking to each other. As far as I'm concerned, this whole thing was planned," Spaeder told After Hours with Amy Lawrence on Thursday. "This was planned by MLB, this was planned by the owners. They saw, throughout history, how they've been able to divide the union, how they've been able to get an upper-hand on the union.
"And this is the way. It's the simplest thing. If somebody stopped paying me at my job, I'm going to start getting pissed off pretty fast. Especially if I can't go out and get work elsewhere. I can't go over to Korea and play baseball, I can't go over to Japan and play baseball. These guys are kind of hamstrung."
Union chief Tony Clark spoke with reporters on Tuesday, and said that players, "remain committed to the bargaining process and getting back on the field as soon as possible." A statement released by the union also said that Manfred's "defensive lockout" was "a culmination of a decades-long attempt by owners to break our player fraternity. As in the past, this effort will fail."
The entire conversation between Spaeder and Lawrence can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow After Hours With Amy Lawrence on Twitter @ALawRadio and @AfterHoursCBS, and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.