Baseball Avoided a Lost Season. But Bigger Threats May Lie Ahead.

Manfred and his deputy, Dan Halem, have struggled to forge a productive relationship with Tony Clark, the executive director of the players’ union, and Bruce Meyer, his top negotiator who was hired in 2018.

Manfred, whose reputation suffered over his handling of the Houston Astros’ cheating scandal this winter, further strained his credibility this month with contradictory tactics — guaranteeing a season on June 10 and threatening cancellation five days later. Clark fired back in a statement, saying the players were “disgusted.”

The root of the disagreement was a March deal, formed soon after the virus hit North America, in which the players agreed to take prorated salaries this season as long as they got service time for canceled games. Had they authorized further pay cuts, the owners would have agreed to a longer schedule.

When Manfred flew to Arizona last week to meet with Clark, a former All-Star first baseman, it produced yet another disagreement: Manfred announced that he and Clark had jointly developed the framework for a deal, but union officials insisted it was merely a proposal.

The players, who had initially wanted 114 games, responded with an offer of 70, which the league refused to consider. The players, in turn, roundly rejected Manfred’s final offer, a move that forced him to implement his schedule and sunk baseball’s hope for a lucrative expanded playoff format — which the union still holds as a bargaining chip.

The rejection also means that the union retains its right to file a grievance accusing M.L.B. of negotiating in bad faith.

The union’s hard-line stance irritated some current players, like the Cincinnati Reds’ Trevor Bauer, and some retirees, like the former pitcher Mike Stanton, the Yankees’ union representative during C.B.A. negotiations in 2002, when the sides narrowly avoided a strike.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/sports/baseball/mlb-2020-season-union.html