Washington Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman had self-imposed 10am Saturday morning as his deadline for contract extension talks with the ball club, and according to a report, that deadline came and went without an extension being signed. Via Mark Zuckerman of CSN Washington:
The first full-squad workout of Nationals camp has begun without a contract extension in place for Ryan Zimmerman, despite the star third baseman's self-imposed deadline to work out a deal before he took the field.
Though the two sides have been close for some time, they've not yet crossed a few remaining hurdles necessary to finalize a contract that would keep Zimmerman in a Nationals uniform for perhaps the rest of his career. He does remain signed for the next two seasons.
There were rumblings on Friday that an extension was very nearly done, but talk of a no-trade clause was holding up the official signing of the agreement. Zimmerman and the Nationals have done this dance before, just three years ago, so even though an arbitrary deadline has come and gone it in no way means a contract extension won't be signed at some point either in Spring Training or during the season.
We'll have much more on Spring Training here at SB Nation DC in the coming weeks. In the meantime, check out SB Nation's Nationals blog, Federal Baseball, for more news and notes. And don't forget to visit Baseball Nation, the MLB hub of SB Nation for information from around the league.