MLB Insider Robert Murray spoke with Metsmerized in a phone interview on Thursday to discuss the current state of baseball and offer his perspective on the current negotiations between Major League Baseball and the players union.

“There’s definitely been a lot of different finger pointing going on. The players are accusing the owners of not wanting a season and the owners are accusing the players of being too firm with their demands,” Murray told Metsmerized.

“I truly feel like there’s a truth somewhere in the middle. That being said, I tend to side with the players in this situation because I think the owners have been unfair. I don’t see much of a difference between playing 60 and 70 games.”

“I know it’s a lot more complicated than that, but if there’s not going to be a season because of 10 games that looks really bad on both sides. More so for the owners because they are acting like 70 games is so unreasonable,” said Murray.

“It’s really bad that negotiations have moved so slow and that Rob Manfred waited this long to meet face-to-face with Tony Clark.”

“A lot of people believe this is the pre-cursor for a lockout with the current CBA expiring in 2 years, which presents a strong possibility of 2 lockouts in 3 years if there isn’t a season in 2020.”

“The playoff shares haven’t exactly been favorable to the players either given how much the owners are making especially when you look at their new multi-billion dollar deal with Turner. $25 million is a lot of money but not when you spread it around to a numerous amount of players.”

“The players proposal started at 114 games and the owners at 82. Now we are down to 70 and 60. There’s a lot of tension on both sides. They both hate each other to put it lightly. It’s evident given how unwilling they have been to comprise with each other.”

“I am not confident they get a deal done until the ink actually hits the paper. I am in wait and see mode. No matter how much progress there is, I will not be confident given the tension,” said Murray.

“The owners thought they had a deal, but the players did not feel the same way, which led to talks taking a few steps back. I’ve heard the owners aren’t willing to even go a game above 60. Time is of the essence right now and there are Covid concerns, which have to be taken care of too. We all could use a distraction right now and baseball had the chance to be the first sport back and they blew it.”

“This could’ve been handled so much better by Manfred and the owners. After Manfred went on ESPN to say he was no longer confident in a season happening, some sources I trust told me it was a negotiating tactic and sure enough, talks resumed shortly after that,” said Murray.

“The Arizona meeting was a step in the right direction but there is still a long way to go. The level of optimism was high on Wednesday afternoon, but it dropped in the evening and is currently grim after what took place on Thursday as both sides are clearly still far apart.”

“There is optimism that a deal will get done but the overall feeling is still not a good one around the league given what has gone on.”

‘If there’s no agreement, Manfred will probably implement a season of 50 games. I’ve heard from several people that if this happens, we could see multiple high profile players sit out this year.”

“Manfred is doing everything he can to try and get a deal done so we can avoid this from happening because it would be detrimental to the sport,” said Murray.

Murray started chasing his dream career of becoming an insider at 16-years-old while he was still in high school. By the time he turned 18, he had already broken two major stories in baseball including the signing of Billy Butler to the Oakland Athletics and Francisco Liriano to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

After that, his life would change forever as these two stories led esteemed MLB Insider Jon Heyman to take notice and reach out to Murray through direct message on twitter. The rest is history as Heyman evidently took Murray under his wing and helped him get a job at FanRag sports.

From this point on, a promising career was launched, which led to an opportunity covering the Milwaukee Brewers the past two seasons as a beat writer for The Athletic. Last year, Murray broke the news that the Brewers acquired pitcher Drew Pomeranz at the trade deadline.

Although Murray departed from The Athletic following the 2019 season, he has established himself as one of the premier insiders in Major League Baseball and is currently one of the hotter candidates that’s out there on the sports media free agency market. Murray has also continued to prove he has the fire power, or sources I should say, to continue to be a force around the league when it comes to breaking news.

Shoot him a follow on twitter @ByRobertMurray