JUPITER, Fla. —

Major League Baseball said only five days remain to salvage March 31 openers and a full season, telling locked out players that games would be canceled if a labor contract is not agreed to by the end of Monday.

After the third straight day of negotiations with little movement, MLB went public with what it had told the union on Feb. 12.

"A deadline is a deadline. Missed games are missed games. Salary will not be paid for those games," an MLB spokesman said after Wednesday's bargaining ended. The spokesman spoke on behalf of MLB on the condition the spokesman not be identified by name.

Players have not accepted Monday as a deadline and have suggested any missed games could be made up as part of doubleheaders, a method MLB said it will not agree to.

The union told MLB if games are missed and salaries are lost, clubs should not expect players to agree to management's proposals to expand the postseason and to allow advertisements on uniforms and helmets.

Bargaining is scheduled to continue Thursday, and both sides said they are prepared to meet through Monday.

A shortened season would be baseball's second in three years following a 2020 schedule cut from 162 games to 60 because of the coronavirus pandemic. The last seasons truncated by labor strife were during the strike that ended the 1994 schedule on Aug. 12 and caused the start of the following season to be delayed from April 2 to April 25. The 1995 schedule was reduced from 162 games to 144.

Players are paid only during the regular season, accruing 1/162nd of their salary daily. Players would be subject to losing as much as $232,975 daily in the case of Mets pitcher Max Scherzer, or as little as $3,441 for a player at a $640,000 minimum.

Baseball's work stoppage was in its 84th day, and the three sessions this week increased the total on core economic issues to just nine since the lockout began Dec. 2.

Spring training workouts had been scheduled to start on Feb. 16, and MLB already has canceled the first week of exhibitions, which were to begin Friday.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said on Feb. 10 a minimum of four weeks of training are needed before starting the season. A deal by Monday would allow that plus a few days for players to report to camps in Arizona and Florida.

Manfred has spoken publicly just once since the day the lockout began and union head Tony Clark not at all.

MLB's public statement was interpreted as a pressure tactic by the union, which was angered payrolls decreased during the expired five-year deal and an increased number of teams jettisoned higher-salaries veterans and transitioned to rebuilding mode.

"To get bears in the forest, you can't offer them bear traps," said Scott Boras, agent for five of eight players on the union's executive subcommittee.

A day after the union made only small moves in response to management's incremental proposal of a day earlier, MLB advanced only one change: Teams offered to increase the minimum salary from $570,500 to $640,000, up from their previous proposal of $630,000. The minimum would increase by an additional $10,000 each season during a five-year agreement. Clubs withdrew their proposal for a tiered minimum, which players opposed.

Players have asked for $775,000 in 2022 and additional $30,000 jumps in each succeeding season. The union evaluated MLB's proposal as adding $5 million annually.

There was no discussion Wednesday on the key issue of luxury tax thresholds and rates, but players voiced their concern over a lack of competition and the need for younger players to get higher salaries earlier in their careers.

The union proposed a $115 million pool of money that would go to 115 pre-arbitration players annually, while the clubs offered $20 million that would be distributed to 30.

Yankees pitchers Gerrit Cole and Zack Britton joined the talks, two of six members on hand from the executive subcommittee that supervises the negotiations. They were joined by Scherzer, free agent pitcher Andrew Miller, Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor, and Houston catcher Jason Castro.

After meeting at the start of the day at Roger Dean Stadium, the vacant spring training home of the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals, the sides caucused and then had a smaller group meeting that included Deputy Commissioner Dan Halem, Colorado CEO Dick Monfort, Scherzer and Miller.

Teams have told the union they will not decrease revenue sharing and will not add new methods for players to accrue service time, which the union said is needed to prevent teams from holding players back to delay free agency.

Clubs also are refusing to increase arbitration eligibility among players with at least two years of service and less than three, of which the top 22% by service time are eligible. The union wants it expanded to 75%.

JUPITER, Fla. — Monday marks the first day of negotiations between MLB and MLBPA.

Teams were supposed to begin spring training earlier this month.

But that may not happen until March 5, and that’s the earliest estimate.

That pushes back Opening Day until at least March 31.

Negotiators, including Colorado Rockies CEO Dick Monfort and Bruce Meyer, will discuss a list of proposals at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida.

Until now, all talks during the lockout had been in New York at the offices of MLB and the players’ association.

Monday’s session will be just the seventh on core economics since the lockout started December 2, and the sides have met on consecutive days just once, on January 24 and 25.

MLB said Friday that it intended to have meetings with the union every day in the coming week.

MLB told the union that Feb. 28 is the last possible day to reach an agreement.

If an agreement is not reached in time, it would be the first time since 1995 that MLB has missed games due to a work stoppage.

Max Scherzer won’t be starting spring training workouts Wednesday in the warmth of Mets camp in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Marcus Stroman won’t be shaking off rust amid the cactus at the Cubs complex in Mesa, Arizona.

No crack of bats or thwacks of balls popping into mitts.

No free agents putting on new uniforms for the first time.

No veterans hugging teammates following months apart.

No kids leaning on chain-link fences waiting for autographs.

No sign of getting ready for an opening day that may not happen on March 31.

Not even a negotiating session.

Neither side made any public statement this week to acknowledge the obvious: Spring training is failing to start on schedule for the first time since 1995, victim of a lockout that stretches into its 77th day Wednesday as players and management squabble over how to apportion an industry with $10 billion annual revenue.

So instead of debating RBIs and ERAs, Major League Baseball has been reduced to disputing CBTs and AAVs.

Pitchers and catchers won't be reporting to camp as scheduled, but MLB doesn't plan to announce a disruption to spring training until Feb. 26 exhibition openers can't be played.

If talks stretch into March — all signs are they will— season openers are likely to be pushed back.

"I am an optimist and I believe we will have an agreement in time to play our regular schedule,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said at a news conference last Thursday. “I see missing games as a disastrous outcome for this industry, and we’re committed to making an agreement in an effort to avoid that.”

Those were Manfred's first comments to media since Dec. 2, the day baseball's ninth work stoppage began, its first since 1995.

Pace of bargaining has been even slower than pace of games.

There have been just five negotiating sessions on core economics since the lockout started: a Zoom gathering on Jan. 13 followed by in-person meetings on Jan. 24-25 and Feb. 1 and 12. Reliever Andrew Miller has been the only player to attend in person and Rockies CEO Dick Montfort the only owner.

Players have demanded significant change, angered that payrolls were $4.05 billion last year, down 4.6% from their record high of just under $4.25 billion in 2017, the first year of the just-expired labor contract.

The union has asked for salary arbitration eligibility to be expanded to two years of major league service, its level from 1974-86, proposed a decrease in revenue sharing and wants new methods for top young players to be credited with additional service time, which the union says would address its allegations of service time manipulation.

Management has said it won't consider cutting revenue sharing or expanding arbitration. The sides are far apart on minimum salaries, the amount of a proposed bonus pool for young stars, and luxury tax thresholds and rates.

“The league was not required to declare a lockout,” union head Tony Clark said on Dec. 2 in his only comments to media since the lockout began. “Players consider it unnecessary and provocative. This lockout won't pressure or intimate players into a deal that they don't believe is fair.”

Manfred said the lockout was “defensive,” citing the union's decision to strike late in the 1994 season, which led to a 7 1/2-month stoppage and the first canceled World Series in 90 years.

“If you play without an agreement, you’re vulnerable to a strike at any point in time,” he said. “What happened in 1994 is the MLBPA picked August, when we were most vulnerable because of the proximity of the large revenue dollars associated with the postseason. We wanted to take that option away and try to force the parties to deal with the issues and get an agreement now, which is what we continue to believe is best for the fans.”

Both sides seem to believe the other won't make significant moves until the verge of opening day being threatened. Manfred said last week that perhaps four weeks of training would be needed, with additional time for ratification and players to travel to camps.

When players were locked out in 1990, the sides said a minimum three weeks of training were needed ahead of April 2 openers. When March 12 passed without an agreement, MLB said it would wait four additional days before making any announcement. Owners made a new proposal on March 16, leading to weekend negotiations and the announcement of an agreement at 1:18 a.m. EST on March 19.

Training camps opened March 20, exhibition games began March 26 and opening day was pushed back a week to April 9. After announcing on the night of the agreement that a 158-game schedule was contemplated, the sides struck a deal on March 22 to extend the end of the regular season by three days and have each team play a full 162.

In the meantime, these negotiations appear to be a game of chicken.

“The issues that the players are interested in engaging on has been the same leading up to bargaining, throughout bargaining and will continue to be the same moving forward," Clark said on the day the lockout began. "A fair contract that maintains a market system and addresses the competitive integrity issues that we’ve highlighted for some time.”