WAITING TO PLAY BALL!
Players tell Manfred they’re ready to start, and just ask, ‘when and where’
TAMPA — When and where?!? That was the infuriated reaction from players across the game after MLB commissioner Rob Manfred went from “100%” there would be a season on Wednesday, to saying on Monday night he’s “not confident there will be a season in 2020.”
“Rob Manfred and the owners are walking back on their word…AGAIN. The fans do not deserve this. So I’ll say it one more time, tell us when and where,” Nationals ace Max Scherzer tweeted.
And Yankees first baseman Luke Voit retweeted Scherzer Tuesday morning — along with tweets from other angry players. The Yankees players were on social media Monday night, angry and frustrated by what is seemingly the most dire of tactics in the negotiations to get baseball restarted after shutting down because of the coronavirus pandemic. Zack Britton, Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole and Ben Heller also took to social media to express their solidarity in the union negotiations.
Judge retweeted Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who wrote “Tell us when and where! We are ready!”
The Angels’ Mike Trout, the eight-time All-Star and three-time MVP who is normally soft spoken, also joined the campgain, as did the Mets’ Pete Alonzo.
Heller expressed his own frustration.
“We want to play,” Heller wrote. “We want to grow the game. We want to give the fans what they want. It’s beyond frustrating to see the current and future state of the game be destroyed.”
That’s about the only thing that MLB and the players agree on right now; the risk of killing a game that had already seen declines in younger fans and attendance over the last five years.
Even Manfred recognizes that these negotiations have been detrimental.
“It’s just a disaster for our game, absolutely no question about it,” Manfred said on an ESPN special Monday night. “It shouldn’t be happening, 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.”
But Manfred’s flip-flop on Monday made him the target. His name trended on Twitter as players and fans called him out.
Trevor Bauer has been an outspoken critic of the commissioner and Monday night, Voit retweeted some of the Reds’ pitchers’ harsh comments.
“So, Rob, explain to us how you can be 100% sure that there’s going to be baseball but not confident there will be baseball at the same time? Hmmm,” Bauer wrote in the beginning of an eight-Tweet thread. “What changed between those statements? Players told you to set the season, but it’s too early to set the season right now, isn’t it Rob? Because then you’d have to explain why you’re only going to impose 50 games when we could easily play 70+ right now. 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.’
“The public backlash combined with potential of having to explain yourself in front of an arbitrator isn’t too appealing, is it?”
Bauer went on to speculate that Manfred and the owners wanted a 55-game season, where owners say they will begin losing too much money in games played without fans, and they would continue to stall the negotiations until that is all that is possible.
“[It’s only] June 15, so how do you delay another 13 days? Guess we all got that answer today. Threaten to cancel the season. Threaten arbitration. Threaten grievances. All the while, hold the fans for ransom. Hold the future of the game for ransom. No one believes your bluff, bud,” Bauer concluded.
The players, who agreed to prorated salaries back in March, shot down the owners last proposal on Saturday with union chief Tony Clark saying the commissioner should just go through with his threat to implement a season which baseball has under the original March agreement.
“It unfortunately appears that further dialogue with the league would be futile,” union chief Tony Clark said in a statement the day before Manfred backtracked his threat. “It’s time to get back to work. Tell us when and where.”
The league’s lawyers said they would not set the season until the players waived their right to file a grievance on the negotiations, according to the Los Angeles Times. Then the league turned to the fact that the players had not officially approved the health and safety proposals for starting the season, including the fact they heard that several players and personnel had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Players were upset the league let that get out.
Britton, the Yankees’ union rep, retweeted Nationals reliever Sean Doolittle, who said:
“Wait…[the league] leaked information about player health to the AP? First, I hope everyone is feeling ok and recovering well. But the timing of this leak is suspicious and it feels really gross.”
Clark’s statement Monday night was angry and frustrated :
“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. 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.”