MLB Commish Goes Nuclear, Invokes Right to Force Season, Spring Training July 5

In a bold power move that many predicted would be the unfortunate outcome of baseball’s protracted negotiations to resume play, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred took his big fat thumb and mashed the big red button on Monday night. Manfred invoked a right that he won in March negotiations with the players, at a time when nobody could have predicted the situation in which we now find ourselves, to essentially force a season.

The MLB Player’s Association (MLBPA) was most recently reviewing a proposal from the league for a 60-game season that included several other minor concessions on the part of owners. The plan would have expanded the playoffs for this year, added a two-year universal designated hitter, and two pools of additional available salary in the form of bonuses. The MLBPA voted down the proposal 33-5, with a representative from all 30 teams and eight union executives voting. The season Manfred now plans to invoke includes none of those concessions, as detailed in a statement first broken by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal.

Source: Owners plan to implement 60-game season once union responds to two questions posed in statement. https://t.co/6Erj1jLpfK

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 23, 2020

The statement lists the many provisions in the recently rejected offer then takes careful time to mention “In view of this rejection, the MLB Clubs have unanimously voted to proceed with the 2020 season under the terms of the March 26th Agreement.  The provisions listed above will not be operative.” Almost as if they were flaunting their perceived victory. If you own a baseball team and you found an intern’s phone in the office and that phone happened to be open to this paragraph, I’d like to personally tell you that you suck and you’re wrong, we all lose with this deal.

The league has not announced most of the specifics, but MLB insiders seem to feel they are aiming for the 60 games proposed in the most recent deal. They will likely not included the universal DH or expanded playoffs.

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To put the player’s side in perspective, this was the mood of Trevor Bauer about an hour before the news of the implemented season broke:

If there’s going to be a fight the time for that fight is after the ‘21 season when a new CBA is negotiated. 5 years of potential change. We’re doing irreparable damage to our industry right now over rules that last AT MOST 16 months. WTF kind of sense does that make? 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) June 22, 2020

Remember, Bauer predicted most of this just a week ago. I can’t imagine the news is going to make him feel better, and players are most definitely going to remember this going into next year’s labor negotiations.

For now, MLB is asking for answers to just two questions from the players: “Do you agree with the operational handbook for safety practices in order to give us the best chance of playing games safely?” and “Can you report to camp by July 5th.”

Stay tuned for more of what should be a heated back and forth between the players and ownership. This one doesn’t truly feel over by a long shot. Let’s all remember that a nasty little bastard called Covid-19 still has a say in this as well. With Florida seeing record numbers of new cases every day, and the mean age of cases dropping from the mid-60s in May to just 37 years-old today, young people across the state are getting sick and it will be difficult to justify opening baseball training facilities. And a lot of states are right on that same pace. More than 40 players and staff from several different teams have recently tested positive for the disease, resulting in MLB shutting down camps just last Friday. The list goes on.

For now… play… ball?

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