MLB commissioner Rob Manfred: ‘We’re going to play baseball in 2020. 100 percent.’
A little more than an hour before the 2020 Major League Baseball Draft began on Wednesday night, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred made appearance on MLB Network and ESPN and said what baseball fans wanted to hear.
“We’re going to play baseball in 2020,” Manfred said. “100 percent.”
Exactly what that will look like — how many games, how much players will be paid, how the playoffs will look — will be determined in the not-so-distant future, whether by an agreement between the league and the MLB Players Association or Manfred mandating things on his own.
The league is going to reject the players’ latest deal from Tuesday night — one that called for an 89 game season with an expanded playoff format and players receiving full pro-rated salaries among other things. The league’s next proposal, Manfred said, will be “a significant move in the players’ direction.”
Main concessions the league wants from the players remain the same: A season that has the World Series ending before Nov. 1 and the players moving away from full pro-rated salaries.
“The best thing for our sport is to reach a negotiated agreement with the MLBPA,” Manfred said.
But if that doesn’t happen, Manfred has the power under the March 26 agreement between MLB and the MLBPA to institute a season that could be in the 50-game range.
Manfred didn’t give an exact deadline for the sides to agree to a deal before taking matters into his own hands but said “Each and every day that goes by, we lose the capacity to play at least one game. That’s really the time pressure. It’s significant at this point in time.”
“One way or the other,” Manfred said, “we’re playing baseball.”
.JPG)