Players reject final offer, but Manfred and MLB to proceed with 2020 season
The players on Monday put the fate of the 2020 Major League Baseball season in commissioner Rob Manfred’s hands.
By the end of the day, the announcement became official: Play ball.
The league said in a statement Monday night that “the MLB Clubs have unanimously voted to proceed with the 2020 season” despite the fact that the league and the MLB Players Association could not come to terms on their own on a season that has already been on hold since March 12, two weeks before opening day was initially scheduled, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Just how many games the season will be is predicated on two questions the league needs answered from the players by 5 p.m. Tuesday.
1.) Can the players report to training camp by July 1?
2.) Whether the players will agree on the operating manual that contains the health and safety provisions necessary to play the regular season and postseason. The MLBPA said in a Monday statement the agreement should be finalized “in the coming days.”
The MLBPA struck down the latest and ultimately final proposal from the league on Monday. That deal, according to multiple outlets, included 60 regular-season games based on a regionalized schedule (teams competing against those in their division and the corresponding division in the opposite league), full prorated salaries for players, a 16-team playoff field for each of the next two seasons and the implementation of the designated hitter in the National League for both the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
On the financial side, the league’s proposal called for no additional salary advance relief (players received a $170 million advance in their March 26 agreement), a cap of $25 million for a playoff pool for 2020 and no modifications on the qualifying offer for next offseason. It also included the 16-team expanded playoff field and universal designated hitter for both 2020 and 2021 that had been in previous offers.
ESPN reported that the 38-member MLBPA committee rejected the proposal by a 33-5 vote.
The MLBPA released a statement shortly after the vote saying that “we await word from the league on the resumption of spring training camps and a proposed 2020 schedule.”
The league, meanwhile, said it was “disappointed by this development.”
“The framework provided an opportunity for MLB and its players to work together to confront the difficulties and challenges presented by the pandemic,” the league’s statement continued.
Manfred’s powers
Instead, Manfred invoked the power given to him under a March 26 deal between the league and MLBPA that allows him to set the league’s 2020 schedule “using 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” if the league and MLBPA couldn’t come to an agreement.
Manfred has said on multiple occasions that he would prefer to have the league and players come to terms on the season.
But there was no more time to wait to put a season together if the league truly wants the World Series to be decided by the end of October. Manfred needed approval from at least 23 of 30 team owners to implement a season. The season is likely to be within the 54- to 60-game range and in a best-case scenario will start the final week of July.
The universal designated hitter will still take place in 2020, but the expanded playoffs will not.
How the negotiation unfolded
With Manfred’s decision made, it ends a nearly three-month saga of back and forths, offers and counteroffers, discussions and disagreements and calls of bad-faith negotiation that reached a tipping point during the past two weeks but ultimately ended without an agreement.
The league and players throughout it all had been at an impasse since official offers started going on the table last month. The players made it clear they wanted to play as many games as possible for full pro-rated salaries, which they agreed to in a March 26 deal with the league before negotiations began.
League owners wanted to limit the number of games and keep the postseason in October due to network contracts, a fear of a second wave of the coronavirus and the desire to keep their revenue losses to a minimum. The league also contends that the March agreement calls for renegotiation of salaries if games are to be played without fans.
But movement really began to pick up in earnest on June 10, moments before the start of the 2020 MLB Draft and two days before MLB sent the union what would eventually be its third proposal for starting the season. Manfred went on both MLB Network and ESPN and said, unequivocally, that baseball would be played this year.
How confident was Manfred? “100 percent,” he said at the time.
What unfolded since then:
▪ June 12: The league sent over a proposal that called for a 72-game season with players making up to 83 percent of their prorated salaries (only 70 percent if the postseason wasn’t played).
▪ June 13: The players rejected the aforementioned deal with MLBPA executive director Tony Clark writing in a statement that “It unfortunately appears that further dialogue with the league would be futile.”
“It’s time to get back to work,” Clark’s statement continues. “Tell us when and where.”
▪ June 15: Manfred says in an ESPN interview that he no longer feels certain that a season will take place after the union’s call to end negotiations.
“We are running out of time. The clock is ticking on this,” Manfred said, “but the key, the important first step is a willingness on the part of the MLBPA to get back at the table and engage in the process.”
Players doubled down and united around their “when and where” rally cry, including social media comments from some of the league’s top players and most recognizable faces in Mike Trout, Gerrit Cole and Bryce Harper.
▪ June 16: Manfred and Clark met in Phoenix and came up with “a jointly developed framework that we agreed could form the basis of an agreement and subject to conversations with our respective constituents,” as Manfred wrote in a statement.
▪ Wednesday: The league sent its fourth proposal to the union, which included, among other things, full prorated salaries for the players over a 60-game regular season and a playoff field that expands to 16 teams from the normal 10. The players would also have to waive their right to a grievance should they accept this deal.
▪ Thursday: The players countered MLB’s offer with one that called for most of what the league asked for in its proposal except for a 70-game season, the ability for teams to sell advertising on uniforms and for both sides to waive their right to a grievance. The league quickly rejected the offer and decided not to make a counter offer.
“We’re at the same place,’’ Manfred told USA Today. “We want to reach an agreement…. We’re doing everything necessary to find a way to play, hopefully by agreement.’’
▪ Friday-Sunday: MLB made it known that 60 games is its upper limit for games and leaves its offer from Wednesday on the table. A slew of positive coronavirus cases across the league (including the Phillies, Blue Jays, Yankees, Giants and Astros) and the league shutting down all spring training sites added new logistical challenges that needed to be addressed.
And that brought us to Monday, when the players once again turned down a league proposal and turned over the direction of the season to the commissioner.
“While we had hoped to reach a revised back to work agreement with the league, the Players remain fully committed to proceeding under our current agreement and getting back on the field for the fans, for the game, and for each other,” the MLBPA said.
This story was originally published June 22, 2020 at 6:10 PM.
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