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On the day that the CBA expires, the final day to avoid the seemingly inevitable lockout by coming to an agreement, the ownership group walked into the hotel to negotiate with the MLBPA representatives...and left after seven minutes, as reported by ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
The Athletic’s Evan Drellich later reported that the league informed the MLBPA that negotiations are finished for Wednesday. The current CBA will expire at 11:59 p.m. ET tonight and the owners can lock out the players at midnight.
The MLBPA has been told negotiations are over for the day. At midnight eastern, the owners can lock out the players.
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) December 1, 2021
When and if that lockout is imposed at midnight, transactions will be frozen and contact between team officials and players or agents will be cut off, including injured players using team resources to recover. The lockout has no clear timeframe, but many prominent media members seem like they would be surprised if it went past February, because at that point it would actually start impacting spring training and the season itself, which would negatively impact the wallets of both sides.