Little chance of extending current labor deal to avoid painful lockout, say union, league New York Times (Online) Evan Drellich MILWAUKEE — There's virtually no chance Major League Baseball and the Players Association would agree to extend the current labor agreement to avoid a potentially disastrous lockout. Even if the league was not proposing a salary cap — the centerpiece of a contentious negotiation — interim union head Bruce Meyer “is not prepared to do a status quo deal,” commissioner Rob Manfred said Friday before Game 1 of the World Series. “He's made a lot of demands about improvements that they want,” Manfred continued. “Everybody's got stuff on the table right now, and you know, we'll see how it all sorts out.” But Manfred himself isn't interested in a status quo deal, either. “No, no, I'm not suggesting I am,” Manfred said. “My only point is, everybody's focused on the fact you have a salary cap on the table, and (Meyer) doesn't like that. Well, he has a whole lot of proposals on the table that we don't like. We're going to have to get through that.” For his part, Meyer said that “anything's possible” but said that there's been no discussion about the idea of an extension, and ultimately cast doubt it would happen. The owners dislike the current system, Meyer said, “so I'm not sure why they would agree to continue that.” There would also be technical matters to sort through, issues Meyer pointed out were contentious up to the last minute of the 2021-22 negotiations, which went down to the wire. “Even theoretically, if the parties agreed, like, 'Let's continue some version of the status quo, it's easier said than done,” Meyer said. “What happens to the minimum salary? What happens to the luxury-tax proceeds, what happens to the pre-arb (bonus) pool?”