Frustrated MLB players finished talking, tell team owners to set 2020 season schedule
The MLB Players Association has had enough of the back-and-forth with the owners, and on Saturday evening told commissioner Rob Manfred that it’s time to play ball.
MLBPA executive director Tony Clark said in a statement that despite the players’ best efforts to negotiate in good faith amid the coronavirus pandemic, on top of massive pay cuts they agreed to in March, the owners have reciprocated with intentionally poor offers and leaks to the media to drive the narrative.
The players are done with the process and have put the responsibility of scheduling the season squarely on the owners.
“It unfortunately appears that further dialogue with the league would be futile,” Clark said in a statement. “It’s time to get back to work. Tell us when and where.”
The owners, for their part, lobbed the same lack of good-faith negotiating toward the players, perhaps setting the stage for dueling grievences that will drag the sport further into the gutter.
The contentious relationship between the players and owners sunk to what appeared to be a new low Friday, when a scathing letter from the owners’ lead negotiator, Dan Halem, to the union’s top negotiator, Bruce Meyer, was leaked to the media.
Halem contends that the union has not acted in good faith, and cries about the money owners stand to lose. The letter comes days after St. Louis Cardinals owner Bill Dewitt Jr. said that owning a baseball team isn’t very profitable.
The Dewitt family purchased the Cardinals for $150 million in 1995. It is worth an estimated $2.1 billion today.
Since March, the Association has made it clear that our No. 1 focus is playing the fullest season possible, as soon as possible, as safely as possible,” Clark said. “ Players agreed to billions in monetary concessions as a means to that end, and in the face of repeated media leaks and misdirection we made additional proposals to inject new revenues into the industry — proposals that would benefit the owners, players, broadcast partners, and fans alike.
“It’s now become apparent that these efforts have fallen upon deaf ears. In recent days, owners have decried the supposed unprofitability of owning a baseball team and the commissioner has repeatedly threatened to schedule a dramatically shortened season unless players agree to hundreds of millions in further concessions.”
Manfred has the right to set a schedule, and has threatened an MLB season of 48 games should the players not come off their demands that they be paid their full pro-rated salaries. The owners’ proposal Friday called for a 72-game season that guarantees 70% full pro rata to players and 83% if an expanded postseason is completed.
The players have proposed seasons of 114 and 89 games at full pro rata. They have also proposed an expanded postseason, which would drive TV revenues, as well as other events, such as an All-Star Game, after the World Series.
The owners have never offered to pay full pro-rated salaries, even though players believe that was agreed upon in March when the players agreed to pro-rated salaries. The owners believe they have the right to renegotiate player compensation because games will be played without fans and, thus, gate revenue.
The players’ statement Saturday came hours after a report surfaced in the New York Post that MLB had agreed to a new $1 billion TV rights deal with TBS that would begin in 2022.
“Our response has been consistent that such concessions are unwarranted, would be fundamentally unfair to players, and that our sport deserves the fullest 2020 season possible,” Clark said. “These remain our positions today, particularly in light of new reports regarding MLB’s national television rights — information we requested from the league weeks ago but were never provided.”
In a letter from Meyer to Halem, the players gave the owners until Monday to give them guidance on when spring training would resume and the 2020 MLB season would begin.
This story was originally published June 13, 2020 at 8:04 PM.
