MLB on verge of season mandate
Major League Baseball inched toward the finish line Monday night. Never mind that it did so by stumbling and tripping as it approached the end point.
A little more than two hours after the MLB Players Association announced it had rejected the league’s offer for a 60-game season, MLB made public how it views it can hold a season of the same length — the mandate from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred many had expected.
For baseball to finally get back on the field, two things must occur.
First, the MLBPA — which rejected the league’s proposal, 33-5, Monday — must notify owners by 5 p.m. Tuesday that its players will be able to report to spring training 2.0 by July 1.
Second, the players union must “agree on the Operating Manual which contains health and safety protocols necessary to give us the best opportunity to conduct and complete our regular season and postseason.”
If a season is played, the playoffs will continue to include 10 teams, not 16, and the union, by rejecting the league’s offer, retained its right to file a grievance.
“Today, the Major League Baseball Players Association informed us that they have rejected the agreement framework developed by commissioner Manfred and [MLBPA executive director]
Tony Clark,” the league said in a statement.
“Needless to say, we are disappointed by this development.”
In its own statement, the MLBPA said it was holding true to the March 26 agreement that exists between the two sides, which gives Manfred the authority to set the length of the season as long as players get full prorated salaries.
“Earlier this evening, the full board reaffirmed the players’ eagerness to return to work as soon and as safely as possible,” the union’s statement read, referencing the union’s 38-member executive board. “To that end we anticipate finalizing a comprehensive set of health and safety protocols with Major League Baseball in the coming days …
“While we had hoped to reach a revised back to work agreement with the league, the players remain fully committed to proceeding under our current agreement and getting back on the field for the fans, for the game, and for each other.”
In its statement, the league outlined the proposal and what the union rejected, which includes:
• The universal designated hitter for two years.
• A guaranteed $25 million playoff pool in 2020.
• A $33 million in forgiven salary advances that would increase the take home pay of 61% of major league players.
• Overall earnings for players of 104% of prorated salary.
• The removal of an expanded postseason in 2021 in order to address player concerns.
“The framework provided an opportunity for MLB and its players to work together to confront the difficulties and challenges presented by the pandemic,” the league said. “It gave our fans the chance to see an exciting new postseason format.
“In view of this rejection, the MLB clubs have unanimously voted to proceed with the 2020 season under the terms of the March 26 agreement. The provisions listed above will not be operative.”
Nor is this situation likely to be all that desirable. Baseball is unquestionably in its worst place labor-wise since its last strike in 1994-95, beset by distrust and dislike among its owners and players.
And if the two sides wind up playing 60 games, they’ll hardly mirror what could or should have been.
For example:
• While the players will be paid their full prorated salaries, a key for the players rejecting the owners’ latest offer was preserving their right to file a grievance, something that could drag this out longer.
The MLBPA’s beef would likely be that, by dragging its feet and holding tight to salary structures that paid players around 30% of what they otherwise would’ve made, the owners did not try to play as many games as possible. The owners would contend that the players were impractical or intransigent by insisting they should be paid their prorated salaries.
But the owners, contending they’d lose as much as $640,000 per game without fans, have wanted players to take less than full prorated salaries, until their most recent proposal, and the players wanted proof of why and how the owners were losing so much money.
• Will some players stay home? It’s a reasonable thought at this point.
With COVID-19 still running roughshod through several parts of the country, perhaps players who don’t feel that 60 games is worth it, particularly those with little to prove or no need for the money they would earn, will sit out.
Baseball as a whole loses if its best players do not participate.
• At no point has baseball been more unpopular in the North American sports landscape than right now. Baseball players are seen as greedy whiners. Their “tell-us-whenand-where” campaign didn’t help either, as the league did and the players ultimately balked.
But the owners are equally, if not more, culpable.
For their lateness making an initial offer, for how they seemingly tried to wiggle out of that March agreement and for how they seemed to serve the same meal three different ways.
Furthermore, this staring contest serves as a nasty precursor to what awaits in 2021, when the current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires. Then, the real fun can start.
• There’s also the potential that this will adversely affect the free-agent market in the offseason, with owners, fresh off a financial hit, hesitant to spend on players who resent them or offer contracts that might be impacted by a strike.
The crazy part is that not long ago this all seemed avoidable.
Although this vote was delayed a couple times for players to better assess health and safety protocols, last week was a fairly big one for baseball.
Manfred talked face-to-face with Clark. They traded proposals, with the league finally budging on full prorated salaries.
The money separating the two most recent ones was roughly $250 million — not all that much when you consider that baseball as an industry made $10.7 billion last season. MLB offered $1.51 billion in player salaries with its last proposal. The union countered with $1.76 billion.
One issue that arose from the Manfred-Clark talks was whether or not an agreement was in place. While Manfred believed there was the framework for one, Clark did not view it that way and took the league’s offer to the players for tweaking.
That seemingly angered Manfred and league owners.
The vote was taken by the union’s executive board, which consists of an eightmember executive subcommittee and representatives from each of the 30 teams.
The union originally wanted 114 and then 89 games, the second of those proposals made June 9.
The league had offered a variety of ways to pay players a little over 30% of their salaries, including a sliding scale and then another that was percentage-based, with players making upwards of 80% if a postseason was completed.
Manfred originally said June 10 that he was “100%” certain there would be baseball in 2020. But on June 15, the commissioner backed off those comments, saying he was no longer fully confident the two sides would be able to work out their differences.