The start of spring training games has been postponed by at least a week, Major League Baseball announced Thursday. "We regret that, without a collective bargaining agreement in place, we must postpone the start of Spring Training games until no earlier than Saturday, March 5th," read MLB's statement.

This move has long been expected as the pace of negotiations on a new collective agreement has been glacial since the league imposed a lockout in early December.

Spring training games were originally scheduled to begin on Saturday, Feb. 26.