MLB Cancels 2 Additional Regular-Season Series; Opening Day Postponed to April 14

There will not be any Major League Baseball games until April 14 at the earliest.

Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post noted the league announced it pushed Opening Day back to April 14, which means two more series in the 2022 regular season are now off the table.

MLB had previously canceled the first two regular-season series for every team as the league-initiated lockout continues.

The MLB Players Association issued a response in which it called Wednesday's decision "completely unnecessary."

Some of the biggest issues in previous negotiations between the league and MLB Players Association were the competitive balance tax threshold, the pre-arbitration bonus pool and minimum salaries.

The two sides were closer Wednesday, as Evan Drellich of The Athletic reported the union made a proposal that moved the bonus pool to $65 million and the CBT threshold to a starting point of $232 million before it expands to $250 million. The proposal also called for minimum salaries to start at $710,000 and increase to $780,000 compared to the league's offer of $700,000 increasing to $770,000.

Yet a different subject took center stage Wednesday.

ESPN's Jeff Passan reported the international draft was the "latest stumbling block" as the league refused to negotiate the other issues unless the union agreed to one of three offers. When the union didn't, the league responded by canceling more games.

Drellich explained the following: "The counterproposal players of the three options MLB proposed, per source: Parties have until Nov. 15 to agree to an international draft. If they don't agree on it, then qualifying offer returns after 2022-23 offseason and international system also returns to status quo."

ESPN's Joon Lee and The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal provided more details:        

The two sides were initially unable to come to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement during multiple days of negotiations in Florida, which led to the league's decision to cancel the first two regular-season series leaguewide.

They are once again at an impasse, and it's difficult to feel optimistic there will be an agreement in the near future.

Throw in the reality that a number of free agents still need to sign with teams and players need time to ramp up before any type of regular season, and the 2022 campaign may not be happening anytime soon.