GRIFFIN: Manfred talks on Montreal
“It’s just good business to make sure we have alternatives available to us in the event that there is a problem.” ROB MANFRED
On an opening day at the Rogers Centre with newly installed Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred in town as part of his tour of big-league cities, it was simply coincidence that the visitors were the Tampa Bay Rays.
It is the Rays, with their tenuous stadium situation and wobbly home support, that have encouraged the fans of Montreal that perhaps baseball could one day return.
Manfred addressed a broad array of topics at a news conference prior to the Jays’ home opener Monday, with journalists from Tampa/St. Pete, Montreal and Toronto all interested in his views on the possibility of a second Canadian team. The St. Petersburg stadium situation is at an impasse and has been put on hold until after the season by owner Stu Sternberg.
“I’m aware of the crowds they drew (to Olympic Stadium) two years in a row,” Manfred said of the 96,000plus for two-game sets in both 2014 and 2015. “It’s a very positive thing in terms of demonstrating Montreal’s interest in major-league baseball. I do think it’s important for Montreal to have a firm plan as to how they would get to a majorleague facility, a site, a financing plan and the like in place.
“In terms of a timeline for an actual franchise, just impossible to tell. There’s two ways you can get there. Expansion, which I see as a back burner issue for baseball right now, and relocation, and that obviously depends on developments in other markets.”
The “developments in other markets” include the Rays’ stadium issue, with city councillors rejecting a plan to allow the Rays to look for a stadium site in surrounding areas, plus a different stadium issue in Oakland with the A’s that has been ongoing. Even though Montreal seems like a better bet for baseball than Tampa Bay, there is a suspicion that bids from viable sites like Mon- treal may be used simply to apply pressure to build new stadiums — then forget it.
“I think it is really important for baseball to have viable alternatives with respect to expansion and relocation,” Manfred said. “It’s just good business to make an effort to make sure that we have alternatives available to us in the event that there is a problem. I’m reluctant to characterize them as only relevant on the context of relocation, because I think our sport’s a great sport. It’s tremendously healthy and it has the potential to grow so that I see it as both an expansion and relocation issue.”
Baseball continues to dangle the “expansion or relocation” carrot on the stick for Montreal, but whatever the result turns out to be, a second Canadian team is years away. Manfred’s reaction when told May- or Denis Coderre of Montreal would like to arrange a meeting was, “I would be delighted.”
The conversation turned to the all-star game, an event not held in Toronto since 1991, the third season of the SkyDome. That’s 24 years ago in a 30-team organization. Simply on a rotation basis, the Jays’ number should be coming up soon. “No reason why not in the very near future,” Manfred said.
The current collective bargaining agreement expires at the end of the 2016 season and Manfred was asked about two disputes between players and their clubs that have a chance to get nasty.
Alex Rodriguez, in his renegotiated contract, is slated to receive a $6million bonus every time he ties one of the home run leaders ahead of him. He needs five more to tie Willie Mays at 660 and the Yankees don’t want to pay, claiming it was a side agreement not in the contract.
Meanwhile, Angels owner Arte Moreno may be angling to get out from under some or all of the $83million in guaranteed salary that his club still owes Josh Hamilton. The former all-star has had a relapse in his ongoing battle with drugs and alcohol, with no punishment from MLB, but it seems there may be language in Hamilton’s free-agent contract that was not part of the standard player’s agreement that would allow Moreno to take that unprecedented action. The players’ union is backing both players.
Manfred skated around both issues, although they will likely have to be part of the 2016 negotiations.
“Any potential dispute between the Yankees and Alex would be individual player grievance that would be resolved by negotiation, or ultimately by an arbitrator,” Manfred insisted. “So that would be done before 2016. The fact of the matter is the Hamilton issues are the same — individual club, individual player dispute. Depending on how those disputes play out, it may raise issues that come to the table in 2016, but fundamentally they’re the kind of individual disputes that should be resolved in arbitration.”
In all of his years as commissioner, Bud Selig never attended a majorleague game in Toronto, so Manfred is already one up on his predecessor.