With Major League Baseball and the MLBPA unable to reach an agreement for 2020 on salaries and the length of a potential season, the league has turned its focus to health and safety measures, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports. The union rejected the league’s latest proposal over the weekend, and the owners held a conference call Monday to discuss their next course of action, per Nightengale.
Because the two sides haven’t been able to come together during negotiations, the 2020 campaign is likely to be a 50- to 60-game regular season, Nightengale notes. Commissioner Rob Manfred has the right to determine how many games will be played. And while there has been talk about an increase in playoff teams, the union is of the belief the postseason will remain the same in 2020 with six division champions and four wild-card winners.
Acrimony between owners and players aside, it remains in question whether we’ll get any kind of season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just this past weekend, it was reported that a player and a pitching coach recently tested positive for the coronavirus. It’s unclear how the league will proceed if the game returns and someone else involved tests positive. In the meantime, if the league and the union do reach an agreement on health and safety, Nightengale reports that a 21-day spring camp 2.0 with the majority of teams training in their home ballparks and then a shortened season should be on the way.
Jesus Christ. Leave. Fire both of them. This is devastating and we haven’t even entered CBA negotiations. What a piss poor display of management from Manfred and Clark from the beginning of this.
$. someones gettin extra from somewhere
Standing ovation.
Nailed it.
100% these two are embarrassing baseball fans and hurting the game long term, and not just from this
Second this. Tony Clark is right, but the personal insults in an official letter publicly. This guy argues like a first year stock broker. Even though the players are in the right, Tony Clark is absolutely embarrassing as a representative.
Yea Tony Clark is a buffoon. Still sore the owners wiped the floor with him in the last cba I reckon.
Why does any of this surprise all of you? We live in a world full of F$$Ktards and greed. Take a look around you. This is the ME MOVEMENT.
The owner haven’t negotiated in good faith. Since the players are not getting paid for the playoffs (no fans mean no pay) , the players should force the commissioner to declare the length of season, play at their prorated salary and then strike on Sept 27th.
Neither side has negotiated in good faith. Only the fans suffer.
players have negotiated to not lose what they have. the owners want the players to foot the bill for lost revenue. by asking players to except a prorated deal plus only 70 percent of contracted wages the owners are at fault. they invested in business the loss is theirs.
And they can make business decisions to mitigate that loss, welcome to real life
If Manfred imposes a season length instead of negotiating in good faith and creating a season of maximum length as REQUIRED in the March 26th agreement with the players, then the owners will owe the players 100% of their 2020 salaries. NOT a prorated amount based on games played.
All I can say is, good luck getting that one to fly. You or anybody can interpret the words any way you want, but the players are NOT getting 100% of their salaries this season under ANY circumstance. Book that.
Its federal law. If he imposes a season length, then that constitutes a FULL season and the players will be owed 100% of their contracts.
Here’s the funny thing about law – the law is nothing more than what the presiding judge says it is. Contract law is among the most tangled, interpretive, least consistent subsections of law there is. It’s FEDERAL law that you can’t murder people, yet there are those who do, get caught and get off the hook.
We all know baseball, at the heart of it, is a multi billion dollar per year business, and you have to be pretty sure that the owners (who stand to benefit financially the most) have some absurdly good lawyers on their sides… and we’re talking lawyers who can, if given the time, convince a presiding judge that he or she has eleven fingers. My guess is that they’d start at “force majeure” and work their way through every phrase, word and comma from there.
This is not to say that it’s fair. It is, however, just the way it is, just like it’s not fair but a sad reality that there have been years when major corporations (Amazon comes to mind) have made multi billion dollar profits and paid no income tax, while I haven’t been able to wriggle out of paying my taxes. Federal law, y’know?
This is wrong. Sure they can drag it out in court, but the signed deal isnt some flimsy piece of paper. The owners are in trouble if they dont make a move quickly.
That’s a nice conspiracy theory, but if you think the players don’t also have some of the best representation you’re out of your mind
A signed deal is a signed deal. I’d bet money manfred found out if he imposed a season it’s considered a full season and owners ran him up the flag pole, knowing they’d lose in court. Hence, his backtrack
It’s not a coincidence manfred backed down as soon as the players said “do your job”. Their lawyers know the law too genius..
It’s not federal law that you can’t murder people.
The owners are worried about possible reproductions of implementing a shortened seasoned without reaching an agreement, Manfred said as much publicly. He’s asked the players sign an agreement that they wouldn’t act on their lawyers threats to file suit if he implemented a shorter season at 100%.
Everytime some says bad faith, they owe me a dollar.
I’d be so down for this. Can easily just blame the virus and say it’s not worth the risk.
shut down until 2022, clean out most of the current players start with new blood. you did not learn from 1994. And does this mean going forward if someone gets the flu you will all panic and shut down the game.
2022?
That would be catastrophic
only to the players. the owners dont give a rats behind
Ironically, 30% of the current owners were around in 1994 while 0% of the current players were
Yet you blame the players for both instances
Time to shut the game down, get rid of the anti-trust exemption and start over. If they can’t figure this out do you think they will get the whole 2021 season and playoffs in without a stoppage? Both sides are guilty and who suffers most? The fans of course
At the point to where I don’t care if they play or not
My source, current player, told me the goal from a few months ago was a 56 game season from the owners stand point. Seems like that’s the route it’s going. Also told me a 2021 strike is 99% happening.
Which. will. only. hurt. the. players. because. the. owners. dont. need. the. game
The players ARE the game. If the owners lock out the players after they have said they are willing to play, then MLB violates the CBA and it is annulled.
The players are the game? Sure. So how did they reach the major leagues?
Specifically, how many players jumped straight to the majors right after the draft? Talking current players here. The coaches that helped them weren’t paid by the players. Or the grounds crew maintaining the field.
Did the players physical work the ticket booth or receive tickets from patrons? Did they serve food before and during games? Did they strike a deal with food and beverage vendors? Did they negotiate rental agreements for companies to take up space in their home park?
Did they set up schedules for visitation through team charities? Do the players pay for their own travel or hotel stay on the road? Do they pay for broken equipment or other park maintenance ranging from seats to fences and much more? Do they handle the press when they want answers to their stupid, thoughtless questions or does the team have PR people controlling the situation?
The players are a big facet but no player is bigger than the game.
Trevor Bauer has a Youtube show with his agent where they say the same thing. no need for shady “sources.”
My dad works at nintendo, so I 100% know that is a fact.
Not shady. Just not sure how much he wants me to leak what he tells me. I enjoy getting the free inside scoop lol
Baseball with no fans (and I’m not talking about just no fans on the seats) means there is no game. Owners dont make billions and players dont make millions. Yet, it’s the fans who have no voice, no say in what happens.
It’s time for fans to have a seat at the table of pro sports. We need an advocate for us. It’s not just about the price of tickets or beer at the games. Or licensing of memorabilia or tv rights deals. Ultimately, we pay the price for all of it. Marketers can pay the huge advertising and tv rights can pay the huge deals etc because they pass the cost on to us, the consumers. And its targeted at the fan consumers.
It’s time for fans to have an equal say. And boycotting games etc is not what I mean. Because as soon as 25% of the fans get together and say they wont buy tickets, someone else steps in and buys the same tickets maybe for a slightly reduced price and the whole charade carries on anyways.
Fans need an advocacy group to step in and say fans as a collective group will boycott if our demands aren’t met as well.
And it’s just a bargaining tool the same as players and owners already have.
Owners have lockout threat.
Players have strike threat.
Fans need a boycott threat that has teeth. And that will only come with an advocacy representation for us. Just because it hasn’t happened doesnt mean it can’t happen. Fans have come together before, it’s time for us to do it again.
Who’s with me???
(cut to scene from Animal House where John Belushi goes running out of the room leading the empty charge…)
We do have an advocate for us, the best one in all of business – our wallets. Stop supporting baseball and somewhere down the line they’ll listen. As long as we continue to spend the money that’s been spent, they’ll do exactly what they want, whenever they want.
Whoever said “money talks” was lying. Money screams at the top of its lungs.
He says as he posts on a website dedicated to baseball.
…that I’m not paying for…
You paid with your time. Time is more valuable than money.
I mean, wonderful again, but your comment right off the bat was lame as hell. I’m talking about not spending money to let business owners know how you feel, and you counter with the fact that I made that comment on a site about baseball. Whether I paid with time or money or goats or whatever, NOTHING went into the pockets of the owners that I was speaking about (unless MLBTR has negotiated some sort of bizarre deal with MLB owners that we know nothing about).
So, money means a lot to business owners, MLBTR is a website dedicated to baseball, I had curry for dinner tonight and I just noticed the guy walking down the street has a blue shirt on. Not a single one of those facts has anything to do with the others.
Not when everyone is locked at home lmao
What Manfred doesn’t have the right to determine is how much the players get paid.
If Manfred chooses to impose a season that is not at least the 82 games the owners originally proposed, then the owners will be put in a position where they have to pay the players 100% of their 2020 salaries while only getting revenue from whatever length season Manfred imposes.
The only way the owners could have paid the players less, a pro-rated portion determined by games played, is if MLB had negotiated in good faith the maximum number of games possible. If they impose a season they have not negotiated at all and certainly to this point Manfred and MLB has done nothing in good faith.
You are wrong about that. The players already agreed to pro-rate their salaries for actual games played, so they can not recoup any of that money. And since the has the economically viable clause in their about playing with no fans, Manfred and the owners have the right to set the longest possible season that is economically viable for the owners. It’s all a moot point anyways; this season is dead and buried and next season is going to be a train wreck too. Free agency spending is going to be non-existent and the players will cry collusion.
I’m absolutely correct. Go ask any attorney.
The March 26th agreement has no clause about financial viability. None. When the owners signed that agreement they knew the chances of playing in front of fans in 2020 was non existent. In fact, MLB had proposed several scenarios themselves for playing games with no fans in the stands. They can’t try to claim that they didn’t know it was the probability when they signed the agreement. .
The March 26th agreement required the MLB to negotiate a maximum length season in good faith. They have not done so and if Manfred imposes a season length then by definition in the CBA that is a FULL season.
It is Manfred;s right to impose a season length. But its a FULL season then and the players are due 100% of their contract.
Since the MLBPA has already said the players will play a season of whatever length Manfred imposes, if the owners lock them out now the CBA is annulled and there will be no 2021 season without negotiating a new one.
You’re wrong.
Hahahah troll level
You’re double wrong, not just as to the amount of pay due, but to the fact that the CBA allows the commissioner to cancel the season entirely due to the national emergency… in that case, NO service time and NO pay is due.
In fact, the owners will have given an advance on 2020 salary for games not worked by employees who will then need to return that money.
Wonder if MLBPA has 170m sitting around to loan it’s members?
I like how you call him “double wrong” but then use a different scenario than the one he described
Atl is saying manfred has NO season bc the pandemic. Koa is saying once Manfred imposes any season, it’s a full season
You’re calling him wrong but not even arguing the same point. Lmao wow
You’re Pads Fans
Never ascribe to malice which can be explained by ignorance.
I honestly believe both sides have negotiated in good faith.
But their leaders are so incompetent, so overwhelmed by the complexity of navigating uncertainty and the myriad variables involved, they APPEAR as bad faith actors.
The NBA has from Day 1, tried to find solutions. And has had a healthy back-n-forth about those solutions as the world and COVID-19 unfold.
Baseball by contrast, has shown no ingenuity, no sophisticated analysis, no command whatsoever of the situation they are in.
So they revert to what they KNOW — which is to grunt and point the finger at the other cavemen.
There are high highs and low lows during most negotiations. It happens in multi billion dollar negotiations and the same holds true when any of us purchase a car or home.
While it feels bleak now, remember MLB and MLBPA are posturing. Both sides are attempting to show they are resolute in an effort to gain concessions from the other side. At the end of the day, MLBs and MLBPAs true positions are different than what they share publically.
Though I’m in the minority on this one, I’m still confident we will have baseball in 2020.
Well, here’s the risk the MLBPA is taking here…
Do the losses from playing any Prorated Salary games, added to the risk of cancelled postseason or strike in postseason, added to risk of grievance costs, added to risk of grievance award, roughly equal the losses from just cancelling the season altogether?
PR damage is done. You won’t hurt ratings or fans worse from shutting down the s***show now than letting any season go on.
Would the pressure on the union from no 2020 wages help pressure in the next CBA? What about a lockout in 2021 to strategically force things to a head?
Could MLBPA players afford no 2020, and a 2021 of replacement players? No way.
Just cancel the season. And after that, cancel major league baseball
Well played by the Union. At this point they’ve ceded to the league the ability to establish a schedule. The league now has every opportunity to move quickly and establish a minimum 60 game schedule and probably more. Anything less than that will certainly give the Union a reason to file a grievance. The league also does not get an expanded playoff schedule this way. will be interesting to see if Manfred can find a way to squirm out of this.
I’m surprised Manfred and Clark can’t figure something out since they have so much in common… they both aren’t up to their respective jobs and have the leadership skills of a bucket full of deer ticks
The thought of a bucket full of deer ticks gives me the willies.
Screw them all. It’s already ruined. Let them go ahead and destroy it. Honestly, I’m at the point that I don’t care.
I don’t care anymore I’m in hospice from my cancer and I seen my Sox win in 05. Sports are not really important anymore. I saw my team win screw these millionaires