Players say more labor talks would be ‘futile’
MLB owners now can order a return to work
LOS ANGELES — The Major League Baseball Players Association on Saturday told the owners that the time for negotiation was over, and that the commissioner’s office should go ahead and dictate how long the season would be and when the players should report for work.
“Further dialogue with the league would be futile,” MLBPA executive director Tony Clark said in a statement. “It’s time to get back to work. Tell us when and where.”
The union set the stage for owners to impose a short season, expected to be in the range of 50 games, and the union asked for owners to explain how they would do so by Monday. The players would play for the prorated salaries provided in a March 26 agreement and presumably would not provide the required consent for an expanded postseason.
“Players remain united in their stance that a day’s work is worth a day’s pay, particularly in a situation where players and their families are being asked to take additional burdens and risks,” MLBPA negotiator Bruce Meyer wrote in a letter to deputy commissioner Dan Halem. “Given your continued insistence of hundreds of millions of dollars of additional pay reductions, we assume these negotiations are at end.”
In rejecting the owners’ Friday proposal of a 72-game season for less than full prorated salaries, the players were in particular perturbed of news Saturday that the league and Turner Sports were close to agreement on a new television rights deal. The New York Post first reported the deal; the Sports Business Journal valued the agreement at about $3.76 billion over seven years.
The deal covers future seasons and not the current one, but the timing of the report was not optimal for the league — in the midst of an acrimonious negotiation with players who have resisted ownership insistence that fan-free games during the COVID-19 pandemic require a second pay cut, and four days after the owner of
the St. Louis Cardinals said: “The industry isn’t very profitable, to be quite honest.”
The owners have claimed they would lose money for each fan-free game played this season and have asked players to take less than the prorated salaries provided for in the March 26 agreement. The players have rejected that request, in part because they say owners have failed to provide sufficient documentation to support the claimed losses.
On Wednesday, Manfred pledged on MLB Network: “We’re going to play baseball in 2020. One hundred percent.”
On Saturday, after news of the billion-dollar Turner deal broke, veteran catcher Chris Iannetta tweeted: “I guess we know why there will 100% be a season this year.”
MLB made three economic offers, the last Friday, and the union proposed two. The sides remain far apart on how much players should get of the $4 billion in salaries they originally were set to earn: MLB has offered to guarantee $1.27 billion and increase the total to $1.45 billion if the postseason is completed. Players want $2.25 billion.