MLB is either extremely optimistic about ongoing labor talks between the owners and the players or the league is looking to set a possible point of no return for those negotiations. Amid significant labor unrest between both sides, the league announced Friday a start date for 2027 spring training.
On Feb 19, 2027, all 30 MLB teams will take their respective fields in Arizona and Florida for the first day of spring training, the league said.
Ten days prior to that, teams are allowed to begin spring training workouts, per the league’s announcement.
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Those dates, of course, assumes a normal offseason.
Unfortunately for the league, and its fans, the offseason is shaping up to be anything but normal. The MLBPA and the owners are currently locked in a contentious back-and-forth over the next collective-bargaining agreement (CBA).
While it’s still incredibly early in the process, things don’t seem to be going well thus far. To kick off talks, the MLBPA asked for an “integrity tax” that would punish teams for not hitting a minimum payroll. MLB responded with a push for a salary cap, something that’s been a non-starter for the union in the past. The league later doubled down on the idea, going so far as to release a campaign outlining what it views as the benefits of a cap. As expected, the MLBPA pushed back hard on that idea.
While both sides spent the summer months relatively quiet, MLB re-ignited that animosity in August, when it proposed shortening the free-agency period to just three weeks. Once again, the MLBPA immediately expressed opposition to the idea, noting that it only served to put more pressure on free agents to sign under-market deals.
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By putting out a date for spring training, MLB is engaging in a similar — though slightly less nefarious — tactic. The announcement doesn’t necessarily force the owners and the players to come to an agreement by that date, but it does represent when owners would start missing out on revenue and players would start missing games.
On the other hand, it’s tough to fault the league for sticking to its usual schedule and announcing the start of spring training like normal.
While spring training represents an essential ramp-up period for players, that Feb. 19 date doesn’t necessarily represent a deadline to get a deal done. If spring training games are lost or truncated, that’s far less serious compared to the regular season being affected.
During the last lockout in 2022, spring training was shortened and the first two series of the regular season were re-scheduled after both sides needed until March to agree on a new CBA. Based on that, early to mid-March would be the point of no return, or the point where regular-season games are in jeopardy, this time around as well.
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It’s too early in the process to know whether things will reach that point. While negotiations remain tense, both sides still have months to get together and hammer out the fine points of a new CBA. Even then, they could choose to wait until the last minute to agree on a deal, as both sides would presumably get more desperate as the threat of losing money grows closer.
For now, though, the league will act as though things will proceed as normal. While it felt comfortable enough to put out spring training dates for 2027, fans should probably use pencil when filling out their calendars, as all of this is subject to change based on the nature of labor talks in the months to come.
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