9:53 PM: In addition to postponing the start of the regular season, the league has informed teams that it has postponed the start of spring training until at least March 12, as noted by Micheline Maynard of the Washington Post (Link to Twitter).
5:31 PM: After today’s deadline set by the league to reach an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announced this afternoon that the league was canceling the first two series of the regular season. According to Max Molski of NBC Sports, that would mean losing a total of 91 games. The league has repeatedly stated that there are no plans to reschedule these competitions – either through double headers or by rescheduling pre-scheduled weekends.
The commissioner’s announcement seems to indicate that the 155-match schedule is the maximum number to be played in 2022. Asked why the league is in favor of outright cancellations rather than postponement, Manfred outlined the challenges of redesigning the inter-league game in an appropriate way. Chelsea Janes from the Washington Post). Reports last week showed that the league intends to simply continue where the schedule has stopped if / when there is an agreement, so it looks like the first two series of each club (so far) will simply be excluded from the league calendar.
Not surprisingly, Manfred added that the league’s position is that players will not be paid for games that are not played (through JJ Cooper from Baseball America). This sets the stage for a second season in the last three years with a possible debate on proportional wages, as the union says it does not believe that today should have been the end date to avoid the cancellation of the match.
MLB introduced the blockade unilaterally and could lift it at any time, choosing to continue under the terms of the CBA for 2016-21. There has never been any possibility for the league to take this course of action, but the decision to set a firm deadline (first last night, later postponed until tonight) for an agreement was also taken solely by MLB. The Players’ Association has never given its consent to this term, and the Giants outfielder Austin Slater – The representative of the club’s players – claims that the union prefers the continuation of negotiations to today’s result.
“I don’t think it’s necessary“Slater said Susan Slusher of the San Francisco Chronicle of canceled matches after the end of the league deadline. “PA is setting up training camps and in 2020 we showed that we can do it in three weeks. .. But this is their prerogative, and Rob’s negotiating strategy was to meet that deadline and see if they could push a deal down our throats.”
Others on the side have taken a similar stance, arguing that the league deadline is a negotiating position for MLB to pressure the union to accept an unprofitable deal. Slater’s teammate Alex Wood was among the players to make to Twitter this afternoon to accuse the league of exaggerating the progress made in last night’s talks, thus allowing MLB to speculate that the union is to blame for the lack of agreement today. Manfred made some references to this point in his press conference tonight, noting the truth that the finalization of a new currency board requires the consent of both parties.
After the past week and a half of daily negotiations did not lead to an agreement, what is the next step? Asked by Hannah Kaiser of Yahoo! Sporting whether the league’s “best and last” offer this afternoon meant MLB had no plans to continue negotiations, Manfred rejected. “We never used the phrase “last, best” offer with the unionThe commissioner replied. While he acknowledged that the parties are “dead endHe pointed out that the league is open for the resumption of negotiations. Manfred said that today’s proposal is only a final of the league before the cancellation of matches, and not entirely negotiations. On the other hand, Bob Nightingale of USA Today hears from a source that the league has used “the best and final offer”Terminology.
This is an important distinction. Like Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times indicated this afternoon, the possibility that the league has done its “the best and final offer“Could give way to MLB, declaring a formal stalemate in the negotiations – a solution that could halt negotiations and involve the judiciary. Manfred has refused to speculate on the possibility, but his stated willingness to continue negotiations appears to indicate that the league has no plans to pursue this course of action at this time.
It is unclear when the talks will begin, although the commissioner said he could not resume talks on Thursday at the earliest. Manfred also made it clear that he believes the ball is in the field of the union, saying the league has made the latest offer on issues “without exceptionAnd rhetorically told reporters to draw their own conclusions about which country should take the next move (through Scott Miller of Bleacher Report). The fact that the league has made the latest proposal may be technically true, although an hour before the press conference without wanting to continue negotiations today makes Manfred’s sharp thorns a little strange.
Manfred also made some supporting statements about the negotiations, which are sure to attract some attention. He said the last five years had been “difficult” for the industry financially, a statement that immediately provoked a backlash. As Eric Boland of Newsday points out (on Twitter), the league won a record $ 10.7 billion in 2019. The past two seasons have indeed seen a loss of pandemic revenue – especially in 2020, a year mostly without fans – but Manfred’s claim that the whole latest CBA involves financial difficulties easily disputed.
The commissioner also discussed the terms of the league’s latest proposal. He stressed what he considered to be player-friendly economic provisions (ie the creation of a bonus pool for players before the arbitration) and added that the league was also looking for changes in the product on the field. Manfred claims that MLB proposed ways to implement a field clock and restrictions on defensive displacement during their last proposal. The league’s desire for a field clock was announced earlier, but it was not obvious that MLB was trying to ban the change this winter.
Of course, changes in the aesthetics of sport remain in the background, while major economic disputes continue to rage. The MLBPA issued a statement in response to Manfred’s press conference (on Twitter). Partly reads:
“Rob Manfred and MLB owners have canceled the start of the season. Players and fans around the world who love baseball are disgusted, but unfortunately not surprised. Об What Rob Manfred describes as a “defensive lockout” is actually the culmination of decades of homeowners’ attempts to break up our brotherhood of players. As in the past, this effort will fail.“