MLB, players meet for 1st time since openers canceled

NEW YORK — Major League Baseball and its locked-out players resumed negotiations and met for over one-and-a-half hours Sunday, five days after Commissioner Rob Manfred canceled opening day on March 31.

Deputy Commissioner Dan Halem and Executive Vice President Morgan Sword arrived at the midtown Manhattan office of the players’ association shortly before noon for the first face-to-face session since talks broke off Tuesday in Jupiter, Florida.

The sides talked for 95 minutes. There’s a chance they might meet again Monday.

Baseball’s ninth work stoppage has become its second-longest and was in its 95th day.

While the sides made progress during nine straight days of bargaining, including 16 1/2 hours of talks that started last Monday, they remained far apart on the key issues of luxury tax, minimum salary and the size of the new bonus pool for pre-arbitration-eligible players.

This was just the 16th day of economic negotiations since the lockout started Dec. 2.

Manfred canceled the first two series of each team, saying there would be insufficient training time. That added two more complicated issues to bargaining: lost salary for players and lost service time.

MLB says players will not get credit for either during lost regular-season days. The union said it will fight for both as part of a deal.