Manfred: “We Will Play Baseball in 2020”

Major League Baseball responded quickly to the MLB Players’ Association’s 89-game, fully prorated proposal for a shortened 2020 season from Tuesday, confirming the creation of a counteroffer of their own on Wednesday.

Per commissioner Rob Manfred’s statements on ESPN Wednesday afternoon, the league is preparing a counterproposal that will “move in the players’ direction”. Though, Manfred did state that 89 games would be an unrealistic goal.

Manfred also assured all interested parties, telling them “unequivocally”, “We will play baseball in 2020; 100 percent”.

Though, he also intimated the league could “exercise” their right to force players back to work for a substantially shortened season — as low as 48 games, per reports — if no agreement is made soon.

The union has remained adamant that the league honors its March agreement on full per-game salaries for players in the event of a truncated season due to the ongoing COVID-19 global health crisis.

The league, however, interprets the initial agreement as able to be revisited in the event of fans not being allowed to attend games — which is looking like a lock at this point in the process.

MLB contends that without the revenue generated from fan attendance, teams would lose millions per game and, in turn, they could not play the players their full per-game salaries on a prorated basis.

The Players’ Association’s many requests for proof of such financial hardships have been stonewalled. As a private entity, the league is not required to “open their books”.

MLB’s most recent offer to the union — a 76-game season with 75 percent pay — on Monday was met with a “fair, sensible, compromised proposal” from the MLBPA, per Kansas City Royals standout, Whit Merrifield (Twitter).

The union’s offer included a July 10 Opening Day, with the season running through October 11 and an expanded, 16-team postseason beginning shortly thereafter. If the postseason were played without fans in attendance, the players would share a minimum $50 million pool.

Karl Ravech of ESPN reported on Tuesday that, following the MLBPA’s 89-game offer, an MLB source said the extension of the regular season past September 27 “won’t happen”, alluding to a possible 60-70 game middle-ground.

We’ll keep you posted as more information becomes available.