Texas Rangers: What’s the latest during the ongoing MLB lockout?

All players on the Texas Rangers 40-man roster are locked out as the owners and MLBPA remain at an impasse.  Long bargaining sessions have resolved some issues, but a deal has now continued into what should be the home stretch leading to Opening Day.

Opening Day has also been cancelled and that means that the Texas Rangers series with Joey Gallo and the New York Yankees will not occur.  This one hurts the Rangers financially because the Yankees are typically one of the top draws in baseball.  A loss of 100,000 fans over a three-game opening series is really bad for baseball.

If a deal can get done in short order, the Rangers are scheduled to open their season in Toronto on Friday April 8th.  This would be an exciting homecoming for former Blue Jays 2B and new Rangers player, Marcus Semien.

With each week that the owners and the MLBPA can’t find a common ground for a deal, baseball will lose even more games and the integrity of the game will be tarnished.

Texas Rangers First Home Series

The first home series is now scheduled for Monday April 11th against the Colorado Rockies.  Let’s hope that a deal can be reached this weekend and more games will not need to be cancelled.  This opening series will be a two-game set followed by a day off on Wednesday.  The Rangers will remain at home with a divisional matchup starting on Thursday April 14th against the Los Angeles Angels.

Texas Rangers Spring Training

Currently, the only players in Spring Training camps are players not currently on the 40-man roster.  This is giving management a long look at some of the top prospects.  This includes Josh H. Smith and Justin Foscue.  Both players are currently blocked by the signings of Corey Seager and Marcus Semien and have been working at additional positions to give them more versatility in the field.

Top pitching prospect Jack Leiter pitched his first BP earlier this week.  Rangers fans are anxious to get their first look at Leiter in action.

MLB/MLBPA Bargaining Continues

The owners and MLBPA took a bit of a break and resumed bargaining on Thursday.  Hopefully, both sides can come to an agreement and we can get back to baseball sometime next week.  Baseball has nothing to gain by continuing to lose games.

Commissioner of Major League Baseball, Rob Manfred, and the owners need to get a deal done so that more regular season games are not cancelled next week.