With the clock ticking on making a meaningful baseball season, Major League Baseball sent yet another proposal to the MLB Players Association. This time, it was a 60-game schedule that would give players a full prorated pay salary. There is no done deal just yet, but with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and MLBPA executive director Tony Clark meeting recently, this is the best sign of progress we’ve seen over the last few weeks.
According to a statement, commissioner Manfred confirmed that he and Clark met Tuesday, which provided the framework for Wednesday’s proposal.
“At my request, Tony Clark and I met for several hours yesterday in Phoenix,” Manfred said Wednesday. “We left that meeting with a jointly developed framework that we agreed could form the basis of an agreement and subject to conversations with our respective constituents.”
“I summarized that framework numerous times in the meeting and sent Tony a written summary today. Consistent with our conversations yesterday, I am encouraging the clubs to move forward, and I trust Tony is doing the same.”
New Proposal, But Same Issue for Players
However, some members of the MLBPA don’t think the new plan guarantees enough salary to make it different enough from the other proposals. At the least, in the players’ minds, they wanted to see the number of games increased and the prorated salaries increased, as well.
As of now, the season would begin on July 19 with there being 10 off-days on the 60-game schedule. Sources on both sides of the negotiations believe that ongoing talks could eventually lead to a 65-game schedule.
Manfred Confident Once Again?
On Monday, Manfred said on ESPN’s The Return of Sports special that he was “not confident” that baseball would be played this season, walking back previous comments that “unequivocally, we are going to play Major League Baseball this year” and even going as far as putting the percentage of play at “100 percent.”
MLB had previously made three proposals to finally start the 2020 season while the Players Association made two. At the end of the day, the two sides were about $1 billion off-track in guaranteed salary. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, players were set to make about $4 billion in combined salaries.
Different Playoff Format on the Horizon
In addition to all of the different nuances, an extended version of the playoffs will also be taking place. Details on that are still being finalized, but you have to imagine they would include somewhere around 16 teams and a fair opportunity for those higher-seeded teams to make it all the way to the World Series.
All in all, baseball fans are ready for this horse-and-pony show to end and finally get back to normal. This game has always put the dollars and cents first before the fans, and some of the older fans who have been through this already are poised to do away with baseball altogether. Manfred and Clark had better do something quick, and hopefully draw some of those fringe fans back closer to the game.
