Players nix latest proposal on MLB season, giving Manfred power to set 2020 schedule
Good news: There will very likely be a baseball season.
Bad news: Everything else.
After weeks of a distasteful back-and-forth between billionaires and millionaires, at a time when some 40 million Americans are unemployed and many more would be a willing audience for baseball, there was no agreement on a season between the team owners and players.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, after the MLB Players Association voted Monday evening against another proposal from the owners, was expected to set a schedule of 60 games that will serve as the 2020 MLB season.
The players voted 33-5 against the final proposal, giving Manfred the authority to implement the season as part of an agreement owners and players reached March 26.
The season is expected to start in late July, with training to resume no later than July 1.
“Needless to say, we are disappointed by this development,” MLB said in a statement. “In view of this rejection, the MLB clubs have unanimously voted to proceed with the 2020 season under the terms of the March 26 agreement.
“In order to produce a schedule with a specific number of games, we are asking that the Players Association provide to us by 5 p.m. (ET) tomorrow with two pieces of information. The first is whether players will be able to report to camp within seven days (by July 1). The second is whether the Players Association will agree on the operating manual, which contains the health and safety protocols necessary to give us the best opportunity to conduct and complete our regular season and postseason.”
The statement also said that MLB will not have an expanded postseason or the designated hitter rule in both leagues the next two seasons, players will not receive a guarantee of $25 million in playoff pools this season, and owners will nix the proposal of $33 million of forgiveness for salary advances.
The owners believe the shorter the regular season, the better the chance the postseason is completed before the uptick in coronavirus cases that some health experts suggest will be inevitable come the fall.. The owners stand to make their biggest amount of their money from the playoff portion of the national TV contract.
An expanded postseason, from 10 teams to 16 teams, would have added to the value of the TV deal.
“While we had hoped to reach a revised back-and-forth agreement with the league, the players remain fully committed to proceeding under our current agreement and getting back on the field for the fans, for the game and for each other,” the players said in a statement.
The breakdown in talks comes days after Manfred flew to Arizona to meet with MLBPA executive director Tony Clark in his hometown. Manfred left believing the framework for a 60-game season had been reached, but Clark disagreed.
The players would have received their full pro-rated salaries under the owners’ proposal, and there would have been an expanded postseason. Neither side would have been able to file a grievance for failing to live up to a March 26 agreement shortly after the season was initially delayed.
Clark and the the players countered with a 72-game season at full pro rata and an expanded playoffs, which the union said wasn’t feasible because of their belief that a spike of COVID-19 cases while finishing out the regular season in October could scuttle the postseason.
“Earlier this evening, the full board reaffirmed the players’ eagerness to return to work as soon and as safely as possible,” the players’ union said. “To that end, we anticipate finalizing a comprehensive set of healthy and safety protocols with Major League Baseball in the coming days, and we await word from the league on the resumption of spring training camps and a proposed 2020 schedule.”
Without an agreement between the owners and players, both sides can now pursue a grievance. Should the players do so and be successful, it could cost the owners another $1 billion in a season in which they are expected to lose $4 billion.
The failure to reach an agreement will keep tension between the two sides at a peak as they begin collective bargaining for a new basic agreement. The current agreement ends Dec. 1, 2021.
This story was originally published June 22, 2020 at 6:27 PM.
