In case you had any glimmer of hope about Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) coming together for an 11th-hour deal that will put an end to the current lockout, New York Yankees pitcher Zack Britton has some bad but realistic news for you.
New York Yankees pitcher Zack Britton just got real about how close the MLB and MLBPA are in negotiations to end the lockout
After Jon Heyman, an insider with MLB Network, tweeted out on Sunday morning that one person involved with the negotiations between MLB and the MLBPA believes the two sides were “within striking distance” of a deal that could happen before MLB’s imposed deadline of February 28 (Monday) for the regular season to start on time, Britton fired back with a dose of reality.
This is not accurate.
— Zack Britton (@zbritton) February 27, 2022
Britton, a two-time All-Star who has an 11-year career as a pitcher with the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees, serves as a pension committee representative with MLBPA and has already had plenty to say about the lockout and the extremely slow movement of negotiations this offseason.
The 34-year-old reliever has also been a part of in-person negotiations on the MLBPA side, including on Friday when he was part of a group that included fellow players Max Scherzer and Andrew Miller as well as MLBPA leader Tony Clark and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred.
This isn’t the first time Britton has let his feelings about Manfred and the state of baseball be known as he blasted the league back in June when a new rule to check pitchers for foreign substances went into effect.
While baseball fans are hopeful that the 2022 season will not see any regular-season games cancelled (which would be the first time since the 1995 season was shortened), hopes of the two sides coming together to strike a last-minute deal seems like a long shot at best. However, (as of press time) both sides had planned to meet again on Sunday afternoon to see if any movement could be made.