Britton ready to move past nasty labor fight
The negotiations for the 2020 coronavirus-shortened season may not be over, but Zack Britton is done for now. The Yankees’ union rep said Friday that he doesn’t want to deal with any further issues, including a possible grievance filed by the union during the season.
“The negotiations you know obviously, were really public,” Britton said after throwing a bullpen Friday at Yankee Stadium. “Unfortunately they were public. We wanted to keep that behind closed doors as much as possible, but now that we’re back playing, that’s really my focus right now is playing and that was the end goal for us as a union anyway, getting back on the field, when it was safe to do so. All this stuff that was in between with the negotia- tions, it was a difficult time I think for the game. I think the best thing for us moving forward as players and the game in general and the owners, is just getting back to playing baseball.
“We didn’t come to an agreement so there’s other things that could take place throughout this season, but we’re just happy to be back playing together,” Britton said. “I think I’ve talked to a lot of teams outside of ours, and everyone’s just excited to be back to playing baseball. We’re gonna let (MLBPA director) Tony Clark and (lead union negotiator) Bruce Meyer handle that from here on out. Obviously players would be in the loop, but for anything going forward, that stuff’s going to be through Tony and Bruce.”
The negotiations between the players and owners were very public and very bitter. After reaching an agreement in March, where the players agreed to prorated salaries in return for an advance, the owners went back to the players asking for larger salary cuts. (The owners claim they did this because it became clear after the March agreement that games would have to be played without fans.) Eventually, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred mandated the 60-game regular season — which owners see as a financial breaking point — without the players’ approval.
The players, who pushed for longer regular season schedules and an expanded playoffs, feel that they can contribute by being back on the field and not talking about labor issues.
“Obviously when negotiations spill out into the public forum or the public is used to try to create leverage against one side or another, it’s not going to be pretty. It’s especially not pretty, I think, under the backdrop of a pandemic. But the reality is that it happened and it’s unfortunate I think it leaves a bad taste in people’s mouth,” Yankees ace Gerrit Cole said. “But you know, we got here in the second half of the year. I guess I’m kind of an optimist. It’s behind us. So hopefully we can learn from this for both sides, and hopefully we can, I guess, do a better job in the future. I don’t see why we can’t learn from it and get better. And I don’t see why it needs to continue to spiral.
“From where I’m looking at it now, we’ve got 60 games ahead of us,” Cole said. “So that’s in the past for me and our focus is on trying to come out hot and win some ballgames.”
If MLB can get through a 60-game regular season in a pandemic, the labor issues will come right back into focus next season. The collective bargaining agreement expires after the 2021 season.
Britton said that the owners and players don’t necessarily have to have another ugly squabble.
“I know we don’t have a lot of time before the next CBA but I’m not gonna say that these negotiations are directly going to impact that in the same way. I think this was a very unique situation where no one’s ever had to deal with this from the owners’ side or the players’ side before,” Britton said. “So hopefully in the next few months we’ll have good conversations over the next CBA and avoid any situation like a lockout.
“I can’t sit here and say anything concrete on that end, but my hope is that we would avoid anything like that and we can continue to play baseball.”