The Major League Baseball Players’ Association is considering MLB’s proposal to postpone the start of the 2021 season, and if the union does not offer a counter-offer early next week, spring training may begin. In mid-February, as scheduled, sources familiar with the situation told 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 path. The league’s proposal to postpone the start of spring training until the end of March and the start of the season until the end of April includes a 154-game program that would pay players the full salaries of 162 games, according to sources.
The proposal concerns MLBPA on several fronts, players and union sources told ESPN. As the pitchers have increased their willingness to start spring training around February 17, they are reluctant to stop and start again for the proposed spring training on March 22 for a season that would begin on April 28. , according to sources. In addition, players believe that the language in the proposal would give Commissioner Rob Manfred more power than 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, under the March 26 agreement reached by the parties following the first days of last year’s pandemic, to cancel games or close the sport, which he considered one of the first outbreaks, he never season started. The proposal, sources in the league said, is aimed at protecting MLB from a worsening national situation, whether it is a vaccine-resistant version of COVID-19 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 seated players. Thanks to COVID-19. Both sides, sources said, will retain their rights to take legal action. Disagreement over the scope 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 occur when COVID-19 cases have declined, especially in Arizona, which currently has the most high rates in the country and where half of the league has spring training. Cases in Arizona and Florida have declined recently, and health officials project that they will drop even more from now until the proposal begins.
The possibility of an agreement is possible, but the animosity and mistrust between the parties is deep enough that the sources have doubts about the probability of an agreement. Something as simple as the moment of the offer is a point of contention. League officials were frustrated by the union when, in December, it rejected the possibility of a delay, unless players were paid for 162 games, which the league believes it agreed to in its proposal. In messages sent on Sunday by the players’ representatives to the rank of union obtained by ESPN, they called the proposal so close to spring training as a “tactic” by MLB.
The most recent agreement reached by the parties took months back and forth to when the 2020 season should begin, and Manfred ended up launching a 60-game season when they could not reach an agreement. Both sides have accused the other of bad faith, and the remnants of those negotiations remain palpable today as baseball finds out what its 2021 season will look like.
The union’s eight-player 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, the sources said, that because players are entitled to 162 games under the collective bargaining agreement, the terms of the offer – which will include post-season expansion from 10 to 14 teams and the addition of the designated player to the team. does not offer enough to delay the season.
In the absence of an agreement, there are two possibilities.
The first and most likely, according to sources, would be for teams and players to show up at spring training venues on the dates to be reported and proceed according to schedule. The other is that Manfred invokes the national emergency clause in the collective agreement and suspends the player’s uniform contract – a possibility, but one that would ensure that the parties face each other in court, a prospect that is not attractive to both, according to sources.
MLB’s desire to delay the season has been clear for months. There are almost twice as many daily cases of COVID-19 today than on 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 put double rounds in their programs to get closer to the full number of the game.
Not only the fear of an outbreak fuels the desire of owners to delay the season. Doing so would further the proliferation of the coronavirus vaccine and increase the likelihood that fans would go to stadiums and local health officials would allow more fans to go to stadiums. In talks with the union, the league claimed to have lost billions of dollars last season, a figure that has not been verified. As the stadium’s revenues from the regular season were non-existent in 2020, revenues have certainly declined.
The frustration surrounding what MLB thought was a reasonable compromise was palpable on Sunday. Talks with the union have been scattered 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, when some players are already in town for spring training – and everyone has a house they should cancel, which would probably cost thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars – it’s not practical.
“We are ready to play,” said one player. “NFL plays. NBA plays. NHL plays. Colleges 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 from 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 will have a negative effect on the free agent market, as teams are more likely to play for a total win in the 1980s, rather than in the 1990s. and team executives disagree, 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 this more and more likely for players to play scheduled games to receive full pay. In the absence of an agreement, the extended playoffs could be off the table until 2022, and the designated universal hitter, seven-inning doubles games and a back-to-back starting from second base in extra-innings would be in air.