Los Angeles: Major League Baseball and the league players union reached an agreement on a new labor deal on Thursday, paving the way for the start of the 2022 season next month, reports said. Less than 24 hours after a last-ditch round of marathon negotiations ended in deadlock, the MLB and MLB Players Association have finally settled on a new collective bargaining agreement. The deal, which must be formally ratified by both sides — expected to be a formality — means the 2022 MLB season will start on April 7. On Wednesday, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said the new season would not start before April 14 after canceling a further slate of games. The season had been due to get underway on March 31 but was delayed amid increasingly acrimonious wrangling between teams and players over the terms of a new labor deal. Under the new agreement, a full 162-game season will be played with the lost first week of games being made up by doubleheaders during the season. The surprisingly swift resolution of the dispute on Thursday ends a near 100-day lockout that began when the previous labor deal expired in December. A breakthrough had looked unlikely after a 16-hour round of talks that wrapped up in the early hours of Wednesday morning failed to end the deadlock. Manfred later claimed teams had gone to “extraordinary lengths” to satisfy the demands of the MLBPA. A report on Major League Baseball’s official website said the new deal was likely to include increased minimum salaries, a new pre-arbitration bonus pool to reward young players, and increases in the league’s luxury tax thresholds.