Commissioner Rob Manfred told ESPN on Monday that he’s “not confident” that there would be a baseball season in 2020, after a breakdown in talks between MLB teams and the player’s union on how to split up money in a season delayed by the pandemic.
The comments come less than a week after saying that he was “100 percent” certain that there would be a season in 2020.
Commissioner Rob Manfred losing confidence there will be MLB games in 2020 https://t.co/FHrGn3hIZu
— O.C. Register (@ocregister) June 15, 2020
Reaction:
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred called the league’s current situation “a disaster.” pic.twitter.com/rSmVtVoV2Q
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 16, 2020
Which side is more to blame?
— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) June 15, 2020
MLBPA executive director Tony Clark released a statement regarding Manfred’s comments:
Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark today released the following statement: pic.twitter.com/ibyOqB93WC
— MLBPA Communications (@MLBPA_News) June 15, 2020
— Travis Shaw (@travis_shaw21) June 15, 2020
He’s done nothing good for the game and now we don’t have a game.
Impeach Manfred .— * (@o_ghaloshead) June 15, 2020
From 100% sure to not sure #telluswhenandwhere
— Machete Maldonado (@Machete1224) June 15, 2020
— Travis Shaw (@travis_shaw21) June 15, 2020
So, Rob, explain to us how you can be 100% sure that there’s going to be baseball but not confident there will be baseball at the same time? hmmm. What changed between those statements
Players told you to set the season, but it’s too early to set the season right now,
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) June 15, 2020
And I should state that I was largely indifferent towards and even liked many of the changes Manfred was making to improve MLB. But he’s nothing but a joke now
— Aryn Andrews (@Arynautics3) June 15, 2020
This entire situation is really testing my fandom…
— ismael camarillo (@LaMigra1993) June 15, 2020
My take:
MLB couldn’t implement a 48-52 game schedule at this time in the calendar without losing a grievance to the players since a schedule between 64-72 games can easily be fit in between now and Sept. 27th. Therefore, another delay tactic until the calendar is more friendly
— Jim Bowden (@JimBowdenGM) June 15, 2020
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