MLB owners, players' union return to arguing in public

A day after they appeared on the cusp of a deal to stage a season amid the coronavirus pandemic, Major League Baseball and its players' union returned to a familiar place: arguing about each other publicly and privately as they make little progress toward bringing the game back this summer.

As the calendar marches toward July, and virtually every other North American team sport navigates toward agreed-upon comebacks, baseball has little time to reach a settlement at all.

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The two sides seemed to make a desperately needed breakthrough recently -- an actual bit of progress following weeks of nothing but posturing, ultimatums and brinkmanship. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, who just on Monday went on ESPN and raised the possibility of canceling the season over the ongoing labor dispute, flew to Phoenix to meet in person with Major League Baseball Players Association executive director Tony Clark. Until then, the negotiations had mostly consisted of angry letters between MLB deputy commissioner Dan Halem and MLBPA lead negotiator Bruce Meyer.

The Arizona Summit left the two sides in the bizarre position of failing to agree about what they already agreed about.

On Wednesday, Manfred released a statement saying he left the five-hour meeting "with a jointly developed framework that we agreed could form the basis of an agreement and subject to conversations with our respective constituents."

But Clark disagreed with that characterization Thursday, saying, "It is unequivocally false to suggest that any tentative agreement or other agreement was reached in that meeting." He described what they discussed -- a 60-game schedule, full prorated pay for players with games in empty stadiums and an expanded postseason tournament -- as simply another proposal. He added that, "Rob invited a counterproposal for more games that he would take back to the owners."

That happened Thursday. The players offered a 70-game season and asked for a larger playoff pool, among other things. In a separate statement, Clark parroted Manfred's language from the day before, calling the proposal "the basis for an agreement on resumption of play."

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The proposal sparked immediate outrage from the owners, who insisted they believed they already had the outline of a deal in place and signaled that they would reject the union's latest overture. They will likely submit yet another proposal, perhaps as soon as Friday.

Suddenly, it seemed as if nothing had changed after all between two parties who couldn't trust each other any less.

In spite of all the rhetoric, however, the situation isn't entirely bleak. The sides are closer now than they have been, even as they continue to act as if their differences are insurmountable. The big step forward came in the wake of Manfred and Clark's get-together. For the first time, the owners said they would agree to a settlement that involved paying the players their full prorated salaries for the number of regular-season games played.

Even though the sides bargained that rate of pay for players in a previous agreement from March governing economics during the industry's shutdown, management submitted three consecutive proposals to the union seeking further financial concessions. The owners said they couldn't afford that kind of outlay to players without income generated from having fans in attendance.

The players have made it clear from the beginning that they considered the issue of compensation closed. Last week, they went as far as to say they would no longer offer another proposal and dared Manfred to simply implement a season of a length of his choosing, a right he holds under the March pact. At that time, Clark released a statement that said, "It's time to get back to work. Tell us when and where." That last sentence emerged as a rallying cry for players, with superstars like Mike Trout and Bryce Harper posting it on their social media accounts.

The owners have hesitated to go that route, because it almost certainly would prompt a grievance from the union arguing that they didn't in good faith try to play as many games as possible. They prefer a deal and recognize the players won't budge off the salary component of the March agreement.

So with the issue of pay settled, the question is how many games will be played. The owners proposed 60. The players countered with 70. The difference is about $250 million in total, or about $8.3 million per team, in an industry that had revenues of nearly $11 billion last year.

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The union says the league could make up the difference by enlarging the playoff field from 10 teams to 16 this year and next, something that appeared on both sides' proposals. The extra inventory should lead to tens of millions of dollars in additional media-rights fees to television networks starving for original programming. They also proposed allowing teams to sell advertisement patches on uniforms.

The longer management and the union go without a deal, the fewer games they'll be able to play. While the union has broached the idea of playing the regular season into October and the postseason into November, the owners have refused. They cite their medical experts, who have expressed concern about the possibility of a resurgence of coronavirus cases in the fall. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said that MLB should try to limit the season to the summer for that reason.

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If the two sides do not come to an agreement, Manfred has two options about how to proceed. He can implement a season -- or cancel it outright.

At the very least, Thursday did reveal at least one area where everybody is in sync: Both sides' proposals involve bringing the designated hitter to the National League this year and next.