February 28, the deadline for an agreement to be made before the 2022 season is delayed, is just three days away. Today, Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) members included Max Scherzer, Gerrit Cole, Zack Britton, Andrew Miller, Brent Suter, Brandon Nimmo, Jameson Taillon Lance McCullers, and Miguel Rojas.

Today marked the first day that Major League Baseball’s commissioner, Rob Manfred, attended the meetings. Manfred did not communicate with the players, but he did communicate with MLBPA executive Tony Clark. In addition, Manfred and Clark spoke with each other on how both the MLB and MLBPA can speed up the process to agree to avoid losing March 31, the official start date for the 2022 campaign.

According to Evan Drellich of The Athletic, progress was made in one area, but the more significant issues remained unsolved. Today, both the MLB and MLBPA made progress by agreeing to an amateur draft order and the lottery for the draft, but sides remain apart on how many teams can enter the draft lottery. The MLB wants four teams, while the MLBPA wants seven teams.

Friday’s meeting lasted five hours, the longest meeting to date during this lockout. According to Jesse Rogers of ESPN, The league and the players union remain apart on the Competitive Balance Tax (CBT), revenue sharing, salary arbitration, and the pre-arbitration bonus pool. Once again, there are no new proposals, but there is still optimism that a deal will be reached by Monday, February 28, 2022.

According to Major League Baseball, the earliest Spring Training games are on March 8. The exhibition games were scheduled to begin on March 5 but were canceled through March 7. Therefore, an agreement must be made by Monday, February 28, for a March 8 Spring Training opening day.

The next meeting between the MLB and the MLBPA is scheduled for Saturday, February 27 at 12:00 pm in Jupiter, Florida, at Roger Dean Stadium, hoping that more progress will be made between the two sides.