MLB commissioner reverses course, threatens possibility of no baseball season in 2020
Four days after guaranteeing there would be a 2020 MLB season, commissioner Rob Manfred walked back those comments Monday and opened the door to there being no season at all.
The reason? There’s likely more than one, but owners reportedly told players they would have to waive any legal claims against MLB, in particular any grievances accusing the league of violating their March agreement, before a season can begin.
Owners included that in a letter to the MLB Players Association, which on Saturday said it was finished with stalled negotiations and was prepared for Manfred to create a schedule.
The players would take their full pro-rated salaries at likely no more than 48-54 games rather than the same amount of pay over 72 games and with the risk of not receiving a potential postseason pool.
The players union has long contended that the owners agreed to pay full pro-rated salaries, something the owners dispute.
Manfred has the right to schedule as many games a possible as part of a March 26 agreement in which players agreed to pro rata. The prevailing thought is he would schedule a shortened season to ensure that the postseason would be played in its entirety before a potential second wave of the coronavirus.
The postseason contract is worth nearly $800 million.
“Players are disgusted that after Rob Manfred unequivocally told players and fans that there would ‘100%’ be a 2020 season, he has decided to go back on his word and is now threatening to cancel the entire season,” MLBPA executive director Tony Clark said in a statement. “Any implication that the Players Association has somehow delayed progress on health and safety protocols is completely false, as Rob has recently acknowledged the parties are ‘very, very close.’
“This latest threat is just one more indication that Major League Baseball has been negotiating in bad faith since the beginning. This has always been about extracting additional pay cuts from players, and this is just another day and another bad faith tactic in their ongoing campaign.”
Cincinnati Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer, who has been an outspoken critic of baseball’s owners during the negotiations for a season, was one of many players who took to social media to criticize Manfred, who represents the owners. The players were attempting to voice their displeasure and to inform the public the tack MLB is taking.
“The tactic is to bluff with ‘no season’ again and delay another 2-3 weeks until you clear the risk of ‘not negotiating in good faith by trying to play as many games as possible,’” Bauer said on Twitter. “The public backlash combined with potential of having to explain yourself in front of an arbitrator isn’t too appealing, is it?”
Players believe owners are attempting to divide the union ahead of a collective bargaining year while also trying to turn public sentiment against the players. It might be a losing proposition, especially with news from the past week.
St. Louis Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt Jr. claimed that baseball teams aren’t very profitable, even though franchise values have increased dramatically the past five years while players’ salaries have declined the past two.
MLB is also on the verge of signing an national TV deal with TBS for more than $3 billion that would begin in 2022.
That money goes to owners, who claim that they will collectively lose $4 billion this year without fans at games. However, owners have not provided players sufficient evidence to back their claim.
“You’re holding a losing hand,” Bauer wrote in an extend thread. “Unfortunately, it’s a losing hand for everyone involved, not just you. There’s some saying out there about not killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Check it out on the ole Google machine. It’s worth knowing.”
Manfred admitted that the ugly negotiations have been an optics “disaster” for baseball. Many fans have lost interest in the sport at a time when baseball had an opportunity to capture new fans with no other sports on the landscape.
That opportunity is gone amid the “disaster.”
“It shouldn’t be happening,” Manfred said. “And it’s important that we find a way to get past it and get the game back on the field for the benefit of our fans.”