What’s next for MLB?
As the commissioner says he’s ‘not confident’ about a season, baseball talks of positive COVID-19 cases.
Baseball union chief Tony Clark instructed Major League Baseball last weekend to let the players know when and where to show up for work.
Well, that wait could last until next spring.
Commissioner Rob Manfred said on June 15 that he’s no longer confident there will be a 2020 season on a pretaped ESPN show with five other professional league commissioners.
“I’m not confident,” Manfred said on the network’s “Return of Sports” special. “I think there’s real risk, and as long as there’s no dialogue, that real risk is going to continue . ...
“The owners are a 100% committed to getting baseball back on the field. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you that I’m 100% certain that’s going to happen.”
Major League Baseball’s owners huddled June 15 on a conference call and decided they will take the union’s word that negotiations are over and will now focus on reaching an agreement on the safety and health protocols with the union, along with creating a truncated schedule, according to two people with direct knowledge of the call. The people spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
Yet no schedule will be created unless the union waives its right to all legal claims that MLB violated their March agreement.
Certainly, there will be grievances filed on both sides, but the March 26 agreement specifically allows Major League Baseball to set its own 2020 schedule, using its “best efforts to play as many games as possible, while taking into account player safety and health, rescheduling needs, competitive considerations, stadium availability and the economic feasibility of various alternatives.”
The union will argue that more games should be played, while Major League Baseball will argue that the union did not negotiate in good faith.
Yet in a letter from lead union attorney Bruce Meyer to deputy commissioner Dan Halem, Meyer reiterated the union’s players would be unwilling to take less than their full salaries.
MLB argues that the March 26 agreement was “premised on the parties’ mutual understanding that the players would be paid their full salaries only if play resumed in front of fans,” which the union disputes.
The two sides, who have vastly different interpretations of the agreement, have no choice but to continue to talk.
“I had been hopeful that once we got to common ground on the idea that we were going to 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 bad-faith tactic makes it extremely difficult to move forward in these circumstances.”
“It’s just a disaster for our game, absolutely no question about it,” Manfred added.
MLB informed the union June 15 that several major league players and coaches have tested positive for COVID-19, believing it may be unsafe to start the season early even if they soon reach an agreement in their labor dispute.
The news of the positive tests, and fear of a second wave of the virus wiping out the postseason, Halem says, is the primary reason to finish the regular season Sept. 27. He vigorously denies the union’s assertion that MLB is stalling to play as few regular-season games as possible to save money.
“Your recent letters have all expressed the concern, in one form or another, that players are being ‘asked to take on extraordinary burdens and risks in the current environment,’ ” Halem said June 15 in a letter to Meyer, obtained by USA TODAY. “However, the Association’s proposals to play as many games as possible, as deep into the fall as possible, increases the health risks to players and staff, which is not something we are prepared to do.”