DJ LeMahieu is keeping his body in shape and his outlook optimistic.
The Yankees infielder — who is without access to the team’s Tampa training center, from which MLB players are locked out — has been working out at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla., with a group of about a dozen pros, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Nearly 200 miles southeast, the Players Association and Major League Baseball are attempting to hash out a new collective bargaining agreement without much success thus far. The league has said that games would be canceled without a deal by the end of Monday’s talks, but LeMahieu is confident that an agreement is closer than it appears
“I’m optimistic,” LeMahieu told the Times. “I mean, it sounds like we’re far away. But I really don’t think we’re that far away. I mean, I don’t think we are.”
Baseball, a game of failure, has trained many players to be perpetual optimists, and perhaps LeMahieu is one of them.
The two sides appear in different hemispheres, with the Players Association most recently lowering its ask on service-time manipulation and adjusting its proposal for a draft lottery — meaningful, sure, but there has been little progress on major issues such as the competitive balance tax, salary arbitration and minimum wages.
The season is scheduled to begin March 31, but Opening Day is in jeopardy.
“It would suck, just suck,” LeMahieu said of missing games. “I trust the union. I trust our leadership among the players — I think they’ve done a really good job so far.
“In 2020 [when the two sides fought into a 60-game season agreement through the pandemic], it was much different. We were trying to get on the field, and we didn’t really know what was going on. It was kind of disorganized.”
He thinks the times have changed. LeMahieu has been a Yankee for three years and a major leaguer for 11 and told the outlet he has never seen the union more united.
“I feel like going into this year,” LeMahieu said, “the players union has done a really good job — obviously we want to get on the field and play baseball.”
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