Clock ticks down to first work stoppage since ’95

IRVING, TEXAS » The clock ticked down Wednesday toward the expiration of Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement at 11:59 p.m. and a likely management lockout ending the sport’s labor peace at 9,740 days over 26 ½ years.

After successfully reaching four consecutive agreements without a stoppage, players and owners have appeared headed for a confrontation for more than two years.

“The lockout seemes like a very likely scenario,” pitcher Max Scherzer, a member of the union’s executive committee, said Wednesday after finalizing his contract with the New York Mets.

Management negotiators left the union’s hotel about nine hours before the deal was set to expire and both sides said talks would not resume in the evening. Players said MLB did not make any new central economic proposals this week.

The union demanded change following anger over a declining average salary, middle-class players forced out by teams concentrating payroll on the wealthy and veterans jettisoned in favor of lower-paid youth, especially among clubs tearing down their rosters to rebuild.

“As players we see major problems with it,” Scherzer said of the 2016 agreement. “First and foremost, we see a competition problem and how teams are behaving because of certain rules that are within that, and adjustments have to be made because of that in order to bring out the competition.”

Management, intent on preserving salary restraints gained in recent decades, rejected the union’s requests for what teams regarded as significant alterations to the sport’s economic structure, including lowering service time needed for free agency and salary arbitration.

Many clubs scrambled to add players ahead of a lockout and an expected signing freeze, committing to more than $1.9 billion in new contracts — including a one-day record of more than $1 billion Wednesday.

“It did feel like at least certain groups of free agents were moving more quickly the last few days,” Pittsburgh general manager Ben Cherington said.

Two of the eight members of the union’s executive subcommittee signed big deals: Texas infielder Marcus Semien ($175 million) and Scherzer ($130 million).

“This is actually kind of fun,” Scherzer said. “I’m a fan of the game, and to watch everybody sign right now, to actually see teams competing in this kind of timely fashion, it’s been refreshing because we’ve seen freezes for the past several offseasons.”