In a drastic shift from his narrative last week, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred told ESPN Monday he's "not confident" there will be a 2020 baseball season.
Manfred made the comments to Mike Greenberg for ESPN's "The Return of Sports" special, which is set to air 9 p.m. Monday.
In an interview on June 10, just before the MLB draft, Manfred guaranteed that “we’re going to play baseball in 2020, 100 percent.” However, since then, the union has cut off talks with the league, which Manfred said "were really negative in terms of our efforts" to start the season.
Manfred said the league's next step will be to try to reopen talks with the union.
The league sent its most recent proposal to the players association for how to compensate players for 2020 on Friday, which the union quickly shot down. The plan called for a 72-game season and guaranteed 70-percent of players' prorated salaries, with a maximum of 83-percent.
70-percent prorated salaries over 72 games comes out to the same amount of money players would receive at full pro rata over 50 games. While the league made four separate offers to the players, none of them guaranteed more money than that perceived floor.
In the March agreement between the two sides, owners had the power to renegotiate the agreed upon prorated salaries if it became clear fans would not be able to attend games.
On Saturday, the union sent a letter to the league telling them they were done negotiating. They then demanded the league send them plans on "when and where" they should be by the end of the business day Monday.
Manfred says the issue is a potential legal fight, with players arguing that the league failed to fulfill the terms of the March agreement that called for MLB to play as many games as possible.
“Unfortunately, over the weekend, while (MLBPA executive director) Tony Clark was declaring his desire to get back to work, the union’s top lawyer was out telling reporters, players and eventually getting back to owners that as soon as we issued a schedule -- as they requested -- they intended to file a grievance claiming they were entitled to an additional billion dollars," Manfred told ESPN. "Obviously, that sort of bad-faith tactic makes it extremely difficult to move forward in these circumstances.”
Owners have insisted the season end by the end of October, fearing the expected second wave of COVID-19 could jeopardize the postseason if it goes into November. In the March agreement, both sides agreed to potentially play into November.
Under the March agreement, Manfred has the power to mandate a season, with many believing it would be about 48 games. Under this arrangement, players would receive their full prorated salaries, but many of the other benefits the league was hoping to have this year to offset costs -- like expanded playoffs -- would be lost.
The two sides had not yet officially agreed on health and safety protocols for 2020, though it was believed they were very close.
MLB owners had a conference call Monday afternoon to discuss what they should respond to the union cutting off negotiations.
Update: The MLBPA released the following statement, saying they are "disgusted" by Manfred going back on what he said Wednesday.
Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark today released the following statement: pic.twitter.com/ibyOqB93WC
— MLBPA Communications (@MLBPA_News) June 15, 2020
More to come.
