LOOK WHO’S TALKING!
Manfred & Clark finally meet in person, but MLB deal far from done
The face-to-face summit finally occurred.
The peace treaty? Not quite yet.
Rob Manfred announced Wednesday that he had reached a framework with union executive director Tony Clark for a 2020 restart, centered around a 60-game season starting July 19 or 20 with full prorated pay. The union disputes Clark agreed to that many games — the players want more — and their view was what came out of the tête-à-tête in Arizona was more a Major League Baseball proposal than a joint framework.
The conditions of the discussion, whether you call it a framework or a mere proposal, also included a 16-team postseason, a universal designated hitter both this year and next year and a few other financial inducements for players, such as the forgiving of $33 million of the $170 million the players were advanced from the parties’ March 26 deal. MLB also would like to sell advertisements on team uniforms this season and next to accrue additional revenue.
The offer was contingent upon the PA agreeing to waive its right to file a grievance against MLB for negotiating in bad faith.
“At my request, Tony Clark and I met for several hours yesterday in Phoenix,” Manfred said in a statement. “We left that meeting with a jointly developed framework that we agreed could form the basis of an agreement and subject to conversations with our respective constituents. I summarized that framework numerous times in the meeting and sent Tony a written summary today. Consistent with our conversations yesterday, I am encouraging the Clubs to move forward and I trust Tony is doing the same.”
Clark issued no corresponding “framework” statement and the union’s only official word was that there was no agreement in place.
This latest offer calls for the players to receive approximately $1.51 billion, a total similar to what the players would have received had they signed off on MLB’s previous bid, which called for a 72-game season and the players getting 83 percent of their prorated pay if that schedule had completed its postseason.
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida tweeted on Wednesday that he had just spoken with Manfred and added, “America really needs some unifying common experiences right now, not to distract us from our challenges, but to remind us of the things we have in common. Baseball can help fill that void [and] I am cautiously optimistic we will #playball very soon.”
Alas, the players have unified most of all in opposition to outside forces (primarily Manfred and some of his owners) trying to guilt the talent into capitulating.
Manfred and Clark met Tuesday without deputies, marking the first verbal communication since June 7 and the first in-person talks since March. At that time, the parties finalized the details of a worst-case-scenario agreement that wound up creating more agita than it solved, notably concerning how much the players would receive if games were played without fans.
A climax of sorts arrived last weekend when, just days after Manfred vowed “100 percent” there would be a 2020 season, Clark declared the PA would no longer negotiate and would simply play however many games Manfred unilaterally decreed at full prorated pay, a right MLB gained from the March pact. “Just tell us when and where,” Clark’s statement read, and players latched onto that as a rallying cry, using it effectively on social media as public sentiment turned further against the owners.
Manfred then pulled an about-face on Monday, telling ESPN he was not confident of holding a season because owners were wary they could face a $1 billion-ish grievance filed by the PA that MLB did not act in good faith to play as many games as possible.
The whole thing still could fall apart, and even if they do agree on all terms, the coronavirus looms large — especially in important baseball states such as Arizona, California, Florida and Texas, where the numbers of new cases are soaring. That Clark and Manfred are at least talking again, however, brought a dose of positivity on Wednesday. We’ll see if they can buck their own trend and make that positivity stick.