WHAT’S ONE MORE LITTLE DELAY?
Players put off vote on restart amid virus concerns
The MLB Players Association has not yet voted on whether to restart the league following added coronavirus concerns and a letter from the commissioner.
The players’ union — which initially intended to vote on the league’s 60-game proposal Sunday — decided to wait a little longer to vote on whether to agree to MLB’s latest offer because of the recent uptick in coronavirus cases, according to multiple reports.
The players wanted to wait and see if the recent outbreak would alter the league’s position, according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. MLB rejected the union’s 70-game proposal with full prorated salaries and said it would not offer a counterproposal. The union then said it would reconvene and consider accepting the league’s 60-game proposal, which includes full prorated salaries and the waiving of a potential billiondollar grievance.
MLB pledged to close all 30 spring training facilities on Friday for deep cleaning following a COVID-19 outbreak at the Phillies camp in Clearwater, Fla. The Phillies announced five players and three staff members tested positive for the virus. The Blue Jays also shut down their training facility in nearby Dunedin after a player on the 40-man roster tested positive for the virus. An Astros player also reportedly contracted the
virus.
Commissioner Rob Manfred also sent a letter on Sunday to union boss Tony Clark offering to rescind the expanded playoffs and universal designated hitter plans for the 2021 season if a full 2020 season did not carry out, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
Expanded playoffs served as the MLBPA’s bargaining chip. With a proposal of 16-team playoffs instead of 10, plus an extra round, the league was expected to jump on the offer for increased revenue through national TV deals.
In the letter to Clark on Sunday, Manfred said, “I really believe we are fighting over an impossibility on games,” according to a tweet from The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. The commissioner reportedly went on to say that because teams need to be relocated from Florida, the earliest players could report is June 29, and there would only be 66 days to play 60 games.
If a deal is reached for the 60-game proposal, spring training would not start until the last week of June with the season starting the end of July, according to Nightengale. The league previously hoped to begin spring training 2.0 by June 28, with a potential Opening Day set for July 19-20. MLB already blew past its original hopeful start date for the Fourth of July. Pitchers in particular are expected to require at least three weeks of training to ramp up their pitch counts and avoid injuries.
If players do not accept MLB’s offer, Manfred could mandate a season schedule of his own choosing, expected to be around 50 games. Manfred does not want to set a schedule without the union’s cooperation and would prefer to strike a deal with Clark and his executive MLBPA committee, including players Max Scherzer, Daniel Murphy, Elvis Andrus and others.
The league would like to avoid a billion-dollar grievance from the union for MLB’s cited “bad-faith” negotiations in playing as many games as possible in 2020.