Baseball’s owners, players continue their stalemate
Sides can’t decide on number of games
In what has become a familiar tune, the only thing MLB and the players union could agree on Thursday was to continue to disagree, at least in terms of how long a delayed 2020 season should be.
One day after baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said the sides had jointly reached a framework for an agreement to start a season delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, union director Tony Clark said there was still work to be done after a face-to-face meeting Tuesday in Arizona.
“In my discussions with Rob in Arizona we explored a potential pro rata framework, but I made clear repeatedly in that meeting and after it that there were a number of significant issues with what he proposed, in particular the number of games. It is unequivocally false to suggest that any tentative agreement or other agreement was reached in that meeting. In fact, in conversations within the last 24 hours, Rob invited a counterproposal for more
games that he would take back to the owners. We submitted that counterproposal today.”
The union’s counterproposal called for a 70-game schedule, 10 more games than ownership’s proposal made the day after Manfred and Clark met. While that 10-game difference might not sound that daunting to bridge, it appeared not as easy as splitting the difference at 65 games after some members of ownership reacted strongly against it.
Apparently, some owners thought an agreement in principle had been reached after the Manfred-Clark meeting, which Manfred indicated with a statement afterward in which he said there was “a jointly developed framework that we agreed could form the basis of an agreement and subject to conversations with our respective constituents . ... I am encouraging the clubs to move forward and I trust Tony is doing the same.”
After several reports surfaced Wednesday evening suggesting a deal was at hand, the players union issued a terse message on Twitter: “Reports of an agreement are false.”
According to reports from sevdon’t eral sports news outlets, the union’s new proposal called for 70 games, beginning on July 19 and ending on Sept. 30. Players would receive $50 million in playoff bonuses and a 50/50 split of new postseason revenue in 2021 generated from an expanded number of clubs.
It also included forgiveness of some salary advances given to players in March, use of the DH in both leagues and a mutual waiver against filing grievances claiming bad-faith negotiating.
In both this season and 2021, the playoffs would be expanded from 10 to 16 teams.
The sides have been at odds over the number of games to be played from the outset for a simple reason: Players want prorated salaries for the number of games played, and ownership says it will lose more money with each game played without fans in the stands, a nod to COVID-19 recommendations against mass gatherings.
In the 60-game schedule proposed by owners, players would receive a total of $1.51 billion in pay. With the 70 games requested by players, it would be $1.757 billion. Splitting the difference at 65 games would give players a total of $1.632 billion in pay, which doesn’t seem on surface like a deal-breaker.
Owners who thought the 60game framework was agreed on necessarily see it that way, however. They are trying to cut their losses wherever possible. Players, obviously, want as much pay as possible, especially considering their willingness to take the risk of playing during a pandemic.
As for his meeting with Clark, Manfred had this to say Thursday: “I don’t know what Tony and I were doing there for several hours going back and forth and making trades if we weren’t reaching an agreement.”
If no agreement can be reached, Manfred has the right to impose a season with a schedule of his choice, expected to be in the mid 50s. But that would lead to even more ill feelings between the sides with a likely grievance filed by the union.
One thing is certain: Time is running short to set a schedule for even the fewest number of games at MLB’s disposal. To begin a season in mid-July, with Spring Training Part 2 opening in the final week of June, an agreement between the sides would have to be in place before next week.
“This needs to be over,” Manfred told reporters. “Until I speak to owners, I can’t give you a deadline.
“We’re at the same place. We want to play. We want to reach an agreement. We’re doing everything necessary to find a way to play, hopefully by agreement.”