Cardinals ace Jack Flaherty reacts to MLB threatening to cancel games

Tensions during the MLB lockout remain a bit high but Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty offered a strong reaction to the latest threats from owners. 

Frustrations are running high as the lockout between the MLB owners and players union continues.

Fox on MLB tweeted out some reporting from The Athletic’s Evan Drellich noting consequences if a new collective bargaining agreement is not signed by MLB owners and the players union.

An MLB spokesperson told Drellich that 2022 regular-season games would be canceled and would not be rescheduled and player pay would not be recouped.

Cardinals: Jack Flaherty responds to threat of canceling games

St. Louis Cardinals ace Jack Flaherty didn’t appreciate the implied threat from the owners.

Flaherty expressed frustration shared by many with the players union. The owners locked them out and did not meet with them for a month after the lockout was set.

After very few negotiation sessions, the owners are threatening to cancel games if a deal is not reached by Monday, Feb. 28.

Flaherty expressed the frustration in a bit of a dry manner, but the point is taken.

He is saying it’s not fair for the owners to threaten such deep consequences after their effort to resolve the issue has been rather inefficient. In at least two instances, the owners have wanted to turn the issue over to federal mediators while the players union wants to talk face to face with the owners to reach a resolution. The two sides have only met for less than an hour each day this week.

Winter is turning to spring. It’s warming up in Florida and Arizona. The players want to get to work and get ready for the 2022 season. Fans are ready too. After a long winter anticipating whether we will have baseball or not, it’s terrible to see the two sides not resolve the issue sooner.

But Flaherty is correct. This impending deadline set by the owners is not fair to the players or the fans. It’s not right for the owners to impose such a short deadline – it’s 5 days away –  after they put forth such little effort, and essentially punish the players and fans by taking away games. Not rescheduling those games and then taking pay from the players.

It should be interesting to see what the players and owners do over the next few days. Hopefully, cooler heads prevail and we get baseball soon.