Manfred puts chance of season at “100 percent”
Petaluma’s Torkelson taken by Tigers with first pick of MLB draft
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred remains optimistic a baseball season will be played this year.
Speaking on ESPN ahead of the MLB draft, Manfred said he is “100 percent” certain the season will occur. He added that team owners will soon give a counteroffer to the players in response to the union’s latest proposal on a plan to start the season in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Baseball halted spring training on March 12, and eventually pushed back Opening Day indefinitely. In the subsequent months, the owners and players have bickered publicly over both the format and the finances of a back-to-action plan.
Manfred said ownership’s pending proposal will be “another significant move in the players’ direction in terms of the salary issue that has kept us apart.
“We’re hopeful that it will produce reciprocal movement from the players’ association, that we’ll see a number other than 100 percent on salary, and some recognition that 89 games, given where we are in the calendar and the course of the pandemic, is not realistic.”
On Tuesday, the MLB Players Association reportedly submitted an outline for an 89-game season in which the players would get their full prorated salaries. A day earlier, the owners reportedly proposed a 76game season in which players would be paid 75 percent of their prorated salaries, and only 50 percent if there wasn’t a full postseason.
Each offer drew a negative response from the opposing side.
Earlier Wednesday, USA Today reported that Manfred was close to using his “nuclear option” to end the acrimonious negotiations.
Manfred wields the option of shortening the 2020 season without good faith negotiations with the MLBPA and plans to use that power if the sides can’t close on an agreement within a week, the newspaper reported, citing three MLB executives.
PETALUMA SLUGGER GOES NO. 1 >> Three years after Spencer Torkelson went undrafted out of Casa Grande High, the Petaluma native was selected with the first overall pick in the 2020 MLB Draft by the Detroit Tigers.
Torkelson, 20, is a righthanded, power-hitting first baseman who played collegiately at Arizona State University.
The Northern California product becomes the second athlete with Bay Area ties to be chosen first overall in a professional sports draft this year, following Walnut Creek native and Miramonte High star Sabrina Ionescu who was selected with the first pick by the New York Liberty in the 2020 WNBA Draft.
The Bay Area also produced a No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft when the Los Angeles Rams selected quarterback Jared Goff, who attended Marin Catholic before playing college football for the Cal Bears.
Arkansas outfielder Heston Kjerstad went No. 2 overall to Baltimore, which took Oregon State catcher Adley Rutschman with the top pick a year ago.
After having the worst record in the majors last season, Detroit opened the draft for the second time in three years. The Tigers took Auburn right-hander Casey Mize in 2018, and now they’ve got a powerful bat that could anchor their lineup for years to come to go along with an arm they hope is a future ace.
With power to all fields and a great eye at the plate, the 6-foot-1, 220-pound Torkelson established himself as college baseball’s top slugger after going undrafted out of high school. He hit 54 home runs at Arizona State, two shy of the school record set by Bob Horner — who was drafted No. 1 overall in 1978.
Torkelson likely would have obliterated that mark if his college season hadn’t been canceled after just 17 games because of the pandemic. He hit .340 with six homers and 11 RBIs this year.
Torkelson is the first Bay Area native taken No. 1 overall in an MLB Draft since Monte Vista High and Stanford pitcher Mark Appel was selected by the Houston Astros in the 2013 draft.
After Torkelson and Kjerstad were picked, Miami took Minnesota righthander Max Meyer; Kansas City selected Texas A&M lefty Asa Lacy; Toronto went with Vanderbilt shortstop Austin Martin; Seattle chose Georgia righty Emerson Hancock; and Pittsburgh picked New Mexico State shortstop Nick Gonzales.
Tennessee high school outfielder Robert Hassell ended the run on college players, going No. 8 to San Diego. That’s the latest the first prep player was taken in a draft, surpassing Clayton Kershaw, who went to the Dodgers at No. 7 in 2006.
Florida high school outfielder Zac Veen was taken by Colorado with the ninth pick, followed by the Los Angeles Angels selecting Louisville lefty Reid Detmers to round out the top 10.
MITTY’S YORKE GOES 17TH >> The Boston Red Sox selected San Jose’s Nick Yorke with the 17th overall pick, about 80 spots higher than most pre-draft projections.
Yorke, a senior at Archbishop Mitty High School, is primarily a middle infielder with an exceptional power bat. It’s worth noting that Boston scouting director, Paul Tobini has Bay Area ties: He is a San Francisco native who graduated from Mitty’s WCAL rival, St. Ignatius High.
Yorke won the WCAL MVP his sophomore year in 2018 after batting .494 in 28 games. Yorke committed to Arizona.