SportsPulse: Former executive director of the NBPA Charles Grantham discusses why MLB and the players association need to start working together if they will overcome the financial hardships coming their way as a result of the pandemic.
SportsPulse: Former executive director of the NBPA Charles Grantham discusses why MLB and the players association need to start working together if they will overcome the financial hardships coming their way as a result of the pandemic.
What I’m Hearing: MLB insider Bob Nightengale tells us that owners and the league are not happy with super agent Scott Boras as they believe he’s intentionally slowing down negotiations to restart.
What I’m Hearing: MLB insider Bob Nightengale tells us that owners and the league are not happy with super agent Scott Boras as they believe he’s intentionally slowing down negotiations to restart.
It’s been three months since U.S. professional sports shut down amid the global coronavirus pandemic, and Major League Baseball is seemingly no closer to returning now than it was in March.
The possibility of the July 4 restart has come and gone as owners have refused to offer players their full prorated salaries beyond 50 games. Despite the contentious negotiations, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said last week that he was “100 percent” certain that there would be baseball this year.
Five days later, though, that changed as Manfred said he wasn’t confident there would be a 2020 season — this coming after the MLBPA rejected the owners’ proposal, telling them simply to inform players when and where to report.
And now, MLB’s best player, Mike Trout, is echoing that message to the owners.
In his first tweet since May, Trout — who rarely speaks out about, well, anything — commented on the statement from MLBPA director Tony Clark. In line with the messaging of his fellow players, Trout said, “Tell us when and where!”
As Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer broke down in a Monday Twitter thread, MLB players feel that the owners have been negotiating in bad faith as a stalling tactic to force a 48-or-50-game season. The players have instead opted to have the owners institute the season in lieu of negotiating further — hence, the “tell us when and where” message — but now, Manfred and MLB ownership continues to stall in hopes of minimizing the games played (a money-saving effort).
It’s a losing hand for the owners, and Trout — along with the rest of baseball — sees right through it.
What I’m Hearing: USA TODAY Sports’ Bob Nightengale relays what his sources are saying following Rob Manfred’s recent comments about the MLB season and his lack of confidence it will even happen.
What I’m Hearing: USA TODAY Sports’ Bob Nightengale relays what his sources are saying following Rob Manfred’s recent comments about the MLB season and his lack of confidence it will even happen.
The latest ploy by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred was called out as such in about three hours. The owners aren’t understanding the moment.
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Major League Baseball is currently locked in an ugly battle over the delayed start of the season, with players and owners disagreeing on just about everything. Length of season, salary, safety procedures … you name it, they disagree.
I won’t go into the whole history of all this, because I’d need about 5,000 words to do so, but the main gist is: The owners want a shortened season to help cut costs, and they want to pay the players as little as possible. The players, health concerns aside, want to play, and want to get paid to do so.
He said this just five days after saying he was “100 percent” certain they’d get the season in.
It was a stunning statement, one that called into question all the reporting from the last week. Maybe the two sides wouldn’t get a deal done. Maybe they weren’t that close.
Though, just as quickly as Manfred said what he did, players (including Trevor Bauer, notably) took to social media and explained pretty bluntly what was going on here — The owners were trying to run the clock.
See: The owners want to play as few games as possible to fulfill TV contracts and season obligations before getting to the money-making playoffs. But with the two sides closing in on a deal too early, Bauer explained, Manfred needed to buy time. So Manfred gave an ominous interview implying the sides were far apart.
Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP
It took a couple hours, but anyone closely following the negotiations saw Manfred’s statement in a new light. Twenty years ago, this doesn’t happen, but right now? Of course it does.
If a factor in these negotiations is trying to win over the public, MLB team owners are running an outdated playbook, and they’re getting worked right now.
Owners can’t just use cheap negotiating tactics, then leak stuff to reporters and get their story out there. Well, they can, but now players have a direct line to the fans in a way they never did before.
Years ago, Manfred would say the season was at risk of being called off. The newspapers would run the story the next day. A day later, an agent would leak it to a reporter that Manfred was using this as a negotiating tactic. Maybe the paper would run it in a column, and a day later some other reporters follow up. Manfred then had to be given the chance to respond.
Now it would have been a full week, and the public would be either uninformed of the entire thing or confused, and the owners had successfully run a week off negotiating time.
Now? It doesn’t work like that. Manfred says what he says. Two hours later players are on social media spreading a new narrative. It’s aggregated and parsed. By the time people are in bed, the story is shifted and they’re right back to where they were. No time bought at all, or at most, a few hours.
MLB owners have the money, so they have the power. Always. But young MLB players have a deeper understanding of this moment, and they’re using it to their advantage in these negotiations. They might not win, but they’re dominating in public opinion.
Tuesday’s Big Winners: Oklahoma State football players
Rob Ferguson-USA TODAY Sports
Hours after a photo of head coach Mike Gundy appeared showing him wearing an OAN t-shirt — a far-right “news” website favored by the president — OSU players threatened a mass boycott, speaking up quickly and forcefully against the coach. It might spell the end of his tenure there, and shows that players, when binding together, can enact real change.
Quick hits: Ezekiel Elliott, Vanessa Bryant, Star Wars
When the global coronavirus pandemic led to a shutdown of all U.S. professional sports, it appeared that MLB would be in a position to be one of the first sports to return.
Fast forward three months, and baseball might not return at all in 2020.
In a Monday interview with ESPN, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said that he was “not confident” there would be a 2020 season — this came five days after Manfred said he was “100 percent” certain there would be baseball.
Over the course of those five days, the owners and MLBPA have exchanged proposal rejections and pointed statements. But it ultimately had the players telling the owners to tell them when and where to report for the season. In doing so, the MLBPA put Manfred and MLB in a position to either move forward with a season or basically be exposed in their efforts to play the lowest number of games (a money-saving move).
Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer — one of the more outspoken players amid these negotiations — broke down exactly what the owners were doing with Manfred’s latest remarks. He called out the stalling tactic in a Twitter thread.
isn’t it Rob? Because then you’d have to explain why you’re only going to impose 50 games when we could easily play 70+ right now. The tactic is to bluff with “no season” again and delay another 2-3 weeks until you clear the risk of “not negotiating in good faith by trying to
obvious to everyone what you were trying to do. And no one would think that was a “representative season” so you’d risk not getting your precious playoff money. Nope, can’t have that. So gotta make it more than that. But not too many…you’ve gone as high as about 55 games full
Be at least 4 off days in there…so that’s 64 days. Plus about 20 for spring training…84 days. Sept 27-84 days is July 5. Plus about a week to get players to spring training. So tack on another 7, that takes us to June 28. As I have it figured, that’s your deadline. But today
You’re holding a losing hand. Unfortunately, it’s a losing hand for everyone involved, not just you. There’s some saying out there about not killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Check it out on the ole google machine. It’s worth knowing.
Just last week, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said that he was “100 percent” certain that there would be a 2020 MLB season. Even as the owners and MLBPA found themselves in a financial stalemate amid restart negotiations, the MLB commissioner remained oddly confident.
Well, that appears to have changed in five days.
During an interview with ESPN’s Mike Greenberg, Manfred walked back on his earlier statement and said that was “not confident” we’d see baseball played this year.
The comments came after the MLBPA rejected a return proposal from the owners (70 percent prorated salary in a 72-game season) and said they’d end negotiations. So, Manfred — who works for the owners — was likely making these comments as a tactic in an attempt to direct blame onto the players. As part of their rejection statement, the players asked the owners to implement the season and let them know when and where to report.
“It’s just a disaster for our game, absolutely no question about it. It shouldn’t be happening, and it’s important that we find a way to get past it and get the game back on the field for the benefit of our fans.”
But if MLB actually decided to cancel the 2020 season, it would be the kind of shortsighted decision that would cause generational damage to a sport with already-dwindling popularity. The MLB commissioner, in theory, is supposed to prevent something like that from happening.
These latest remarks had MLB fans and players criticizing Manfred on Twitter.
Oh that’s weird cause a week ago you said there would be 100% chance of playing. Now the players tell you to implement the season you told/threatened us with it’s now our fault that there’s no dialogue? The players are ready and want to play. You made your bed now sleep in it Rob https://t.co/XLrMKHxsxG
Crazy idea, but maybe in the future, the guy in charge of MLB shouldn't also be beholden to the sour whims of 30 or so peevish billionaires who've decided that all that matters to them is positive return on investment instead of, you know, the baseball teams they own. https://t.co/x56wmIKO04
— Jon Tayler, Smiling Politely (@JATayler) June 15, 2020
What I’m Hearing: Our MLB Insider Bob Nightengale details how Rob Manfred could implement the unilateral decision to start a 48-game season if a deal isn’t reach soon. Nightengale believes that doomsday scenario could finally lead to a deal.
What I’m Hearing: Our MLB Insider Bob Nightengale details how Rob Manfred could implement the unilateral decision to start a 48-game season if a deal isn’t reach soon. Nightengale believes that doomsday scenario could finally lead to a deal.
MLB owners aren’t afraid to use sketchy tactics, it seems.
In case you haven’t noticed, Major League Baseball, which is run by the worst commissioner in sports (which is saying a lot because Roger Goodell is a thing, though he might actually be getting a little better), is a total mess right now as the struggles to get a plan in place for a season in 2020 continue to be an absolute embarrassment.
Well, things took another ugly turn on Monday and one thing has become quite clear – the owners are quite fine with deploying sketchy tactics to try to make it look like the players are the bad guys in this whole thing, which they aren’t.
The billionaire owners are the bad guys and none of us should lose sight of that. Ever.
On Monday a story was leaked to ESPN’s Karl Ravech who tweeted out the details: “MLB has made proposal to Players. 75 percent Prorated salary. 76 game season. Playoff pool money. No draft pick compensation for signing player. Season finishes September 27th. Post season ends at end of October. Significant move towards players demands and effort to play more.”
That all looks pretty great, right? Well that’s because it was designed to look pretty great with that specific language. It was also designed to make the players look greedy and dumb if they even thought of saying no to that deal.
Because here’s the thing – that 75 percent prorated salary isn’t for their entire yearly salary but rather for their prorated salary for an 82-game season.
This is something Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer laid out on Twitter shortly after that story came out: “It’s actually 75% of prorated amount, which works out to be about 35% of our full salary to play for 47% of the games.”
And yeah, that’s not so cool, is it?
I get that players make millions of millions of dollars to play a game and there are lots of people out there who think because of that they should just agree to whatever the owners pitch and do it for the good of America.
But here’s something else I get: these billionaire owners are pieces of you know what for trying to make their players look bad. Pieces. Of. You. Know. What.
Players shouldn’t have to give up that much of their salaries in the prime of their careers so some old billionaire can try to cut some of the losses from their pile of money that is virtually endless.
Players shouldn’t have to be painted in a bad light by a bunch of greedy owners who continue to show their behinds to the world with these terrible offers.
There’s a good chance baseball doesn’t happen this year and if that’s the case don’t blame the players. They want to play. But they want to be treated better than these offensive offers from their bosses and they deserve that.
If baseball doesn’t happen, which maybe some of these owners want because they’re afraid of losing more money from games played without fans, this will hurt the game for years to come and will hit those endless piles of money even more than it would if the owners threw out a little more cash this year.
If baseball doesn’t happen it’s because of the greedy, no good owners who should be bending over backward to give the men who make their money the money they deserve.
This ain’t on the players. At all.
Quick hits: Kingsbury will support anthem protests… UFC has serious issues… NHL’s relationship with law enforcement… And more.
MLB Suspends Alex Cora for 2020
Season and Docks Red Sox Draft Pick Major League Baseball completed its investigation
on Wednesday into allegations of illegal sign stealing
by the Boston Red Sox. Former manager Alex Cora, who was fired
in January for his role in the scandal, was suspended by MLB commissioner
Rob Manfred for the upcoming season. Cora’s punishment is only for his role in Houston,
where he served as bench coach for the
Houston Astros during the 2017 season. Manfred said that he does not believe Cora was aware of the sign stealing in 2018 as manager of the Red Sox. Boston’s video replay system operator, J.T. Watkins,
was suspended without pay for one year for his role. The team was stripped of its
second-round draft pick this year. Ron Manfred, via report
MLB Suspends Alex Cora for 2020
Season and Docks Red Sox Draft Pick Major League Baseball completed its investigation
on Wednesday into allegations of illegal sign stealing
by the Boston Red Sox. Former manager Alex Cora, who was fired
in January for his role in the scandal, was suspended by MLB commissioner
Rob Manfred for the upcoming season. Cora’s punishment is only for his role in Houston,
where he served as bench coach for the
Houston Astros during the 2017 season. Manfred said that he does not believe Cora was aware of the sign stealing in 2018 as manager of the Red Sox. Boston’s video replay system operator, J.T. Watkins,
was suspended without pay for one year for his role. The team was stripped of its
second-round draft pick this year. Ron Manfred, via report
