Major League Baseball and the MLBPA continue to haggle over the number of games played this season, but in MLB’s opinion, there’s no point to doing so anymore.
In a letter to MLBPA head Tony Clark, commissioner Rob Manfred essentially said a season longer than 60 games is now impossible due to the time required for spring training and the relatively short window the league has before regularly scheduled playoff baseball would begin in October.
In letter to Tony Clark today, Rob Manfred said, “I really believe we are fighting over an impossibility on games.” Says given need to relocated teams from Florida, earliest players could report is June 29, leaving 66 days to play 60 games.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 21, 2020
This isn’t likely to satisfy the MLBPA. It was previously reported that the union thought owners have simply been stalling in order to run down the clock to allow Manfred to set up as short a season as possible. Ultimately, that seems to be the scenario the league is headed for.
Manfred’s letter does contain something of an olive branch to the union, but it may be too late for anything to be salvaged in an actual negotiation.
