Major League Baseball and its Players Association have been going back and forth for weeks now in negotiations for the 2020 regular season, with no resolution in sight.
With the two sides not able to come to an agreement, the MLBPA ended negotiations over the weekend, telling the league to let them know when and where to show up to begin the season.
The response from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, instead of coming up with a plan for the season, was that he is no longer certain a season will take place period, which came less than a week after he guaranteed there would be one.
Manfred’s reasoning is that he believes the MLBPA will file a grievance against the league if a season is imposed without their approval, which he obviously would like to avoid. Under the two sides’ March agreement, the league promised that they would do everything possible to have as long of a 2020 season as they could, which they no longer seem interested in doing.
In a statement on the matter, MLBPA executive director Tony Clark was not afraid to call out Manfred for going back on his word.
Despite all of the disagreements, it seems MLB is still set on reaching an agreement, via Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic:
The league’s goal, according to one source, remains unchanged: To negotiate a resolution that is satisfactory to both parties.
The MLBPA is set on full prorated salaries for a reasonable number of games, so unless the owners are prepared to make that happen, it is hard to see the two sides coming to an agreement.
Some believe that Manfred is doing all of this pandering as a stall tactic so that the owners can get the 48- or 50-game season that they want, which would likely lead to the grievance being filed by the MLBPA.
The real losers in all of this are the fans, who are eagerly awaiting the return of baseball. The Los Angeles Dodgers, in particular, have a roster capable of making a World Series run. With Mookie Betts and others in the final year of their contracts, they have a lot riding on the 2020 season being played.
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