Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association suspended talks on a new collective bargaining agreement Wednesday, hours before the existing CBA expired at 11:59 p.m. ET. They’ve been meeting daily at a hotel outside Dallas this week, but remain far apart on key economic issues.

According to reports, the league negotiators left the hotel where the union has been holding executive meetings shortly after 2:30 p.m. ET. Sources confirmed to Yahoo Sports that league representatives were not expected to return for further talks Wednesday. The prevailing expectation has long been that they were unlikely to reach a new agreement before the deadline.

The assumption is that team owners will move to implement a lockout, which would freeze all offseason activity involving members of the union.

The league last made proposals on core economics last week. The union countered earlier this week; the league did not counter Wednesday.

Just a few hours before the last of the bargaining sessions, union leader and new New York Mets ace Max Scherzer addressed reporters over Zoom in a news conference designed to announce the signing.

“The lockout seems like a very likely scenario,” Scherzer said.