McAdam: MLB readies an implemented schedule as players vote down last proposal

Only in Baseball 2020 can even a rare win seem like a loss.

A week ago, the Players Association threw up its hands and all but dared commissioner Rob Manfred to put forth his proposal for an implemented schedule. The previous weekend had yielded no progress, and the union began to suspect -- not without reason -- that Manfred and the owners were merely slow-playing the process, killing time until they could impose their plan on a resigned Players Association.

But that thinking failed to take into account one critical element to Manfred's agenda: the commissioner and the owners were deathly afraid that imposing a schedule on the players would ultimately result in an unfair labor practice grievance that could potentially cost the owners billions.

Hoping to avoid that scenario, Manfred flew to Arizona to present a revised proposal to PA executive director Tony Clark. It marked the first face-to-face negotiations for the respective leaders since March.

In the interim, there's were counter-proposals, tweaks to the original Manfred offer, plenty of grandstanding and no progress of which to speak.

On Monday, the Players Association executive board, consisting of player representatives for all 30 teams plus the eight members of the executive sub-committee, voted down a 60-game schedule by a tally of 33-5. Soon after, ESPN and other outlets reported that owners voted to give Manfred the go-ahead to implement a 60-game schedule set to begin around July 24.

Loosely translated then, the two sides ended up.....exactly where they were a week ago, with the renewed threat of a grievance still hovering over the entire proceedings.

With one key difference: another week has been wasted, another week has come off the calendar.

What progress.



Then again, what did you expect from a series of negotiations that seemed to reach the point of absurdity in the middle of last week when Clark and Manfred literally could not agree on what it was they had agreed upon?

Now, the best baseball can hope for is the least it could have already gotten. Gone too, is an expanded playoff field, the removal of qualifying offers this winter and other potential changes that would have drawn fan interest and, at least for the short-term, been good for the game.

Having squandered the past week, there was no time for the owners to grant the players the longer schedule for which they've been clamoring. Manfred and the owners don't want to tempt fate with the prospect of a second wave of the coronavirus in the fall representing a threat to the completion of the postseason.

The owners have been steadfast about ending the regular season on Sept. 27. Even if a schedule gets implemented later this week, there would be a need to take 10 days to get players into place, followed by a three-week Spring Training II. That, in turn, would mean regular season games wouldn't start until the last week of July, leaving little wiggle room to play more than the 60 Manfred first proposed a week ago.

Since the game shut down in late March, the talks -- a misnomer to be sure, since virtually every proposal was presented via email, with true back-and-forth absent until the Manfred-Clark get-together in Arizona last week — have been marked by two constants on the part of both parties: a lack of urgency and an unwillingness to see things from the vantage point of the other side.

Manfred appeared to make some concessions last week, and at the 11th hour, the proposal put before the players Monday included some tweaks which sought to give them some leverage in the event the season wasn't successfully completed.

But by then, it was too little, too late. That just a little over 13 percent of the executive board was willing to sign off on MLB's last, best offer speaks volumes. The union so distrusts the owners that they've now twice called Manfred's bluff and effectively said: "You don't really want an agreement, so just go ahead and do what you've always wanted. And we'll see you in court eventually.''

Any season -- even one shortened and put in place with the knowledge that the players intend to recognize it only as far as they must -- is better than none at all. But that’s of cold comfort overall.

In a way, Monday's outcome is entirely fitting since it means the 2020 baseball season will be the second-worst possible outcome imaginable. Worse, it took months to arrive at this point, and only after the two sides managed to further publicly destroy each other, and the game they purport to love.