MLBPA reflects MLB’s pitch for a delayed season of 154 games, sources say

The Major League Baseball Players’ Association is considering MLB’s proposal to postpone the start of the 2021 season, and if the union doesn’t offer a counter-offer early next week, spring training is likely to begin in mid-February, according to sources familiar with the situation. said ESPN.

After months of scattered dialogue, the parties are in a similar position to last year, when the coronavirus pandemic closed the season: disagreement on the right way forward. The league’s proposal to push back the start of spring training in late March and the start of the season through the end of April includes a 154-game program that would pay players their full 162-game salaries, according to sources.

The proposal concerns MLBPA on several fronts, players and union sources told ESPN. With the pitchers starting training in the spring around February 17, they are reluctant to stop and start again until the start of spring training on March 22 for a season that would start on April 28, according to sources. In addition, players believe that the language in the proposal would give Commissioner Rob Manfred power beyond what he currently has to cancel games and could therefore reduce players’ salaries.

The league does not agree with this interpretation. While Manfred had the right, following the March 26 agreement struck by the parties in the early days of last year’s pandemic, to cancel games or close the sport – which he considered amid early outbreaks – he did not do so. never at the start of the season. The proposal, sources in the league said, is meant to protect MLB from a worsened national situation, whether it is a vaccine-resistant COVID-19 variant or an unexpected increase in cases.

The language, according to sources, gives Manfred the right to act if government restrictions prevent more than five teams from playing at the same time, if travel is restricted or if “competitive integrity is undermined” by players standing because of COVID-19. Both sides, sources said, will retain their rights to take legal action. The disagreement over the breadth of the language could change if the parties continue to negotiate.

MLB’s desire to delay the season, according to league sources, is based on the recommendation of health experts and the likelihood that this will allow the 2021 season to unfold when COVID-19 cases have dropped – especially in Arizona, which currently has the highest rates of country and where half of the league has spring training. Recently, cases in Arizona and Florida have decreased, and health officials project that they will decrease even more from now until the start date of the proposal.

The potential for an agreement is possible, but the animosity and mistrust between the parties is deep enough that the sources were dubious about the likelihood of an agreement. Something as simple as the moment of the offer is a point of contention. League officials were frustrated with the union when it rejected the possibility of a delay in December, unless players were paid for 162 games – something the league believes it has accepted in its proposal. In messages sent on Sunday by the players’ representatives to the union base obtained by ESPN, they called the proposal “close” to the “tactical” spring training by MLB.

The last agreement the parties reached took months back and forth on when the 2020 season should begin, and Manfred ended the implementation of a 60-game season when they could not reach an agreement. . Both sides have accused the other of bad faith, and the detritus of these negotiations remains palpable today, as baseball realizes what its 2021 season will look like.

The eight-player union’s executive board and players’ representatives were briefed on the offer, which was delivered on Friday, according to sources, and were skeptical about the path to a deal. They believe, sources said, that since they are entitled to 162 games under the collective bargaining agreement, the terms of the offer – which would include post-season expansion from 10 to 14 teams and the addition of the designated player in the National League – – no provide enough to push back the season.

In the absence of an agreement, there are two possibilities.

The first and most likely, according to the sources, would be for the teams and players to show up at the spring training sites on the date of their report and proceed according to schedule. The other is that Manfred invokes the national urgency clause in the collective bargaining contract and suspends the uniform player contract – a possibility, but one that would guarantee the opposing parties in court, a prospect that is not attractive to both, according to sources.

MLB’s desire to push back the season has been clear for months. Currently, there are almost twice as many daily cases of COVID-19 as in July 24, 2020, when the 60-game MLB season began. The possibility of an outbreak affecting individual teams remains acute. Miami Marlins and St. The Louis Cardinals last year missed long stretches due to outbreaks and had to cram double heads into their programs to get closer to their full range of games.

Not only the fear of an outbreak fuels the desire of owners to delay the season. Doing so would allow a greater proliferation of the coronavirus vaccine and increase the likelihood that fans would go to stadiums – and that local health officials would allow more fans into stadiums. In talks with the union, the league claimed to have lost billions of dollars last season – a figure that has not been verified. With regular season revenues in the stadium, non-existent in 2020, revenues have undoubtedly been low.

MLB’s frustration with what it thought was a reasonable compromise was palpable on Sunday. Talks with the union have skyrocketed, and at this point, two players said, it is probably too late in the process to reach an agreement. While players have said they recognize that a delay could be pragmatic, this happens when some players are already in spring training towns – and they all have homes they should cancel, probably costing thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars – be impractical.

“We are ready to play,” said one player. “NFL plays. NBA plays. NHL plays. Colleagues play. Why shouldn’t we play?”

The NBA shortened its season by 10 games in early November – about three weeks before the opening of training camps and six weeks before its first games were played. The NHL reduced its season by about a third. Both came out of short seasons that ended later than usual. The MLB season ended on time after an extended postseason, which the league would like to implement again.

The union has expressed skepticism, fearing that the expansion of the playoffs would have a negative effect on the free agent market, as teams would be more likely to play for a total of victories in the 1980s instead of the 1990s. The team disagrees, arguing that the extended post-season – in this case three sets of wild cards in each league – is better for the long-term health of the sport. In the proposal, MLB guaranteed a $ 80.9 million fund for players participating in the postseason.

Getting to this point, of course, is imperative, and the league believes that a delay makes the appearance more likely – and more likely for players to play the scheduled games to receive full salaries. In the absence of an agreement, the extended playoffs could be off the table until 2022, and the universal DH, double ends with seven innings and a runner starting on second base in extra innings would be in the air.