Jon Heyman of MLB Network reported on Thursday that he has been hearing “great confidence” that there will be an MLB season in 2020 even after the owners rejected the latest proposal from the players this week without a counter-offer. Part of that confidence stems from the fact that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has the power to launch the start of the season even without an agreement between the league and the MLBPA.
Hearing great confidence that there will be baseball this year even after players/owners hit a stalemate in talks yesterday. Not sure why this is but could be because owners believe commissioner can and may be willing to mandate a short — about 50 games — regular season.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 4, 2020
Owners believe there are 2/3 ways to play: 1) players accept or negotiate off owners’ sliding scale 82-game proposal (owners are willing to talk about less than the 40% paycut offered) 2) the commissioner mandates a very shortened season (50 or so games) with prorated a layer pay
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 4, 2020
Team owners want the season to be somewhere between 50 and 60 games, but players have reportedly informed the league that they will not agree to anything less than half a season, which would be 81 games. The players already agreed to pro-rated salaries back in March, which is why they want as long of a season as possible.
Because of the March agreement between owners and players, Manfred now has the ability to mandate the start of the season. That doesn’t necessarily mean players will show up if he does, but the option exists.
