MLB won’t start season unless players waive right to hearing

On the first business day after major league players told the league to tell them “when and where” to report for work, the owners shot back in two ways.

Commissioner Rob Manfred, in an interview scheduled to air Monday night on ESPN, retreated from his pledge last week that the chances of a 2020 season were “100 percent.”

Separately, the league sent a letter to the union saying games would not be scheduled unless the union waives legal claims against the league, according to a person familiar with the letter. In particular, the owners want the players to sign away the right to a potential grievance hearing.

Under a March 26 agreement, the owners can impose a season of whatever length they like, and the previous letter from MLB to the MLBPA referenced the possibility of a 48-game season. The players could play while pursuing a grievance that owners did not negotiate in good faith about the length of the season. If the players were to prevail, the owners could be liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

The owners also could file a grievance, alleging players did not negotiate in good faith about salaries this season. The agreement provides for prorated salaries for players; owners have argued the players were obligated to negotiate lesser salaries for fanfree games.

On Saturday, MLBPA executive director Tony Clark told MLB to

go ahead and impose a season.

“Further dialogue with the league would be futile,” Clark said. “It’s time to get back to work. Tell us when and where.”

That comment came three days after Manfred said this on MLB Network: “We’re going to play baseball in 2020. One hundred percent.”

On Monday, after a conference call with owners in which a priority was put on a negotiated settlement, Manfred said “no dialogue” has put the season at risk.

“The owners are a hundred percent committed to getting baseball back on the field,” Manfred told ESPN in a segment to air Monday night. “Unfortunately, I can’t tell you that I’m a hundred percent certain that’s gonna happen.”

Manfred said an agreement for MLB to pay full prorated salaries — to which the owners never have formally agreed — would have prompted the union to back off its threat of a grievance.

“I had been hopeful that once we got to common ground on the idea that we were gonna pay the players full prorated salary, that we would get some cooperation in terms of proceeding under the agreement that we negotiated with the MLBPA on March 26th,” Manfred told ESPN. “Unfortunately, over the weekend, while Tony Clark was declaring his desire to get back to work, the union’s top lawyer was out telling reporters, players and eventually getting back to owners that as soon as we issued a schedule — as they requested — they intended to file a grievance claiming they were entitled to an additional billion dollars.

“Obviously, that sort of badfaith tactic makes it extremely difficult to move forward in these circumstances.”