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
