MLB spring training likely to be delayed after latest negotiation roadblock

Spring training likely won’t start on time after the latest setback in labor negotiations. | Ashley Landis/AP

NEW YORK — The start of spring training likely will be a casualty of Major League Baseball’s lockout, which will threaten opening day unless the drawn-out talks lead to a deal in less than a month.

After a half-year of bickering over the sport’s economics, baseball’s warring factions couldn’t even agree on whether to have a mediator.