MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred came under fire yesterday after saying in an interview on the Dan Patrick Show that a season of more than 60 games was never feasible. “The reality is that we weren’t going to play more than 60 games no matter how the negotiations with the players went, or any other factor,” Manfred told Patrick.
The negative response to those comments was substantial, considering that the March agreement between the league and the players’ association expressly stipulated that two parties would do their “best efforts to play as many games as possible.” On Thursday, Manfred spoke to Bob Nightengale of USA Today in an effort to clarify the point he claims to have been making:
My point was that no matter what happened to the union, the way things played out with the second spike, we would have ended up with only time for 60 games anyway. As time went by, it became increasingly clear that the course of the virus was going to dictate how many games we could play. … if we had started an 82 game season [beginning July 1]We would have had people in Arizona and Florida the time the second peak hit.
Major League Baseball’s initial proposal to the MLB Players Association was in fact for 82 games with a start date of early July, although that proposal came with additional pay cuts beyond prorated wages. The union firmly rejected further cuts. Their argument was that the March deal clearly stated that the prorated wages would be in force regardless of whether fans attended the games, although neither CEO Tony Clark nor anyone else in the MLBPA could explain why they also allowed the inclusion of a clause. The two sides indicate “they would debate in good faith the economic viability of playing games in the absence of spectators or at appropriate substitute neutral sites.”
Ultimately, MLB and MLBPA failed to reach an agreement on the length of a season, prompting Manfred to impose a season length on prorated wages. MLB settled on a 60-game schedule, likely in an effort to avoid a claim by implementing a longer season than the 48- to 54-game season, reportedly preferred by the property.
In the days since the season length was implemented, it has been widely speculated that the MLBPA, however, plans to file a complaint against the league, challenging the idea that MLB made its “best efforts to play as many games as possible. possible”. Manfred’s comments to Patrick on Wednesday were seen by many as ammunition for such a complaint, so it’s no surprise to see him quickly strive to contextualize his words and distance himself from superficial sentiment.
That said, what Manfred can’t, or at least hasn’t explained so far, is why it took the league so long to come up with a proposal to the union in the first place. The March deal was ratified on March 26, and there was already considerable discussion about playing games without viewers at the time. The first report that the league would seek additional player pay cuts came on April 16, and yet the league did not actually come up with a proposal that includes those cuts until May 26. Even the league’s initial plan: a 50-50 income. The part that leaked before its official proposal and was publicly rejected by the union, was not finalized by the owners until May 11.
Throughout these unpleasant and inflexible negotiations there has been criticism from both the union and the league. A particularly popular (and still speculative) theory has been that the league deliberately prolonged negotiations to the point where the number of games sought by the union simply could not fit the schedule. The initial MLBPA proposal was for a 119 game season. The following counteroffers offered 89-game and 70-game seasons, all at prorated wages. The league never considered any of them, just as the union did not consider any MLB proposal seeking salary reductions beyond prorated wages.
The authenticity behind Manfred’s explanation and the motives of both the league and the MLBPA throughout this contentious process can be (and have been) debated ad nauseam. The end result is a 60-game season and a restarted “Summer Camp” where players will begin reporting tomorrow, at a time when COVID-19 cases are rising again in much of the country. Given that context, perhaps Manfred’s most telling quote is not his comment on the length of the season, but rather another statement he provided to Nightengale:
“The reality is that we will be lucky if [get] 60 games now given the course of the virus. “
