Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said on Monday that the 2020 season may be cancelled if there continues to be no dialogue between MLB and the MLB Players Association (MLBPA).
Friday MLB had made what they called their final proposal to the owners and players, offering a 72 game schedule with a chance to earn up to 83% of their pro-rated salary with the completion of playoffs. On Saturday head MLBPA negotiator Bruce Meyer said in a letter to MLB deputy commissioner Dan Halem, “Given your continued insistence on hundreds of millions of dollars of additional pay reductions, we assume these negotiations are at an end.” The players and owners have stood their ground during negotiations and have wanted 100% of the pro-rated pay.
In an ESPN special Monday night hosted by Mike Greenberg titled “The Return of Sports”, Manfred walked back on comments he made to Karl Ravech from ESPN last week when told Ravech, “unequivocally, we are going to play Major League Baseball this year”, and pegged the likelihood at “100 percent.” But during the special when asked if he is confident if there will be a season by Greenberg he stated, “I’m not confident. I think there’s real risk, and as long as there’s no dialogue, that real risk is gonna continue.”
MLB executive director Tony Clark also released a statement in response to the comments made by Manfred that read, “Players are disgusted that after Rob Manfred unequivocally told players and fans that there would ‘100%’ be a 2020 season, he has decided to go back on his word and is now threatening to cancel the entire season. Any implication that the Players Association has somehow delayed progress on health and safety protocols is completely false, as Rob has recently acknowledged the parties are ‘very, very close’. This latest threat is just one more indication that Major League Baseball has been negotiating in bad faith since the beginning. This has always been about extracting additional pay cuts from players and this is just another day and another bad faith tactic in their ongoing campaign.”
The time seems to be now or never for MLB with three other major sports planning to return this season (NBA, NHL, NFL). The loss of a entire season is something that could not only hurt financially but also will hurt the game as a whole going forward.
