The Negotiations Roller Coaster Continues

Nothing like writing an article last week about Rob Manfred saying he’s “100% confident” that baseball will happen in 2020 only to come back this week having heard him switch to “not confident” on the very same issue. I love getting my hopes up only to have them ripped away days later.

Part of me thinks the league and players are doing this just to mess with me and they’ll have an agreement by the time this is published Thursday morning. That way my article will seem out of date (wishful thinking maybe?)

Anyhow, here’s the latest on the situation between MLB and the MLBPA, which actually seems to be moving back in a positive direction:

MLB, players association take positive steps toward a 60 game season | Denver Post ($)

Commissioner Rob Manfred and Executive Director of the Players Association, Tony Clark, met in person Tuesday and developed the framework for a season of 60 games and an expanded postseason featuring 16 teams (15 less important teams and the Rockies I assume.) The owners have also finally agreed to pay full prorated salaries to the players which recently has been the biggest issue. Remember when it was all about health/player safety amidst the pandemic?

72 hours ago it seemed like we were on the brink of disaster. Now, with this latest development, it feels like we are close to a season again. I don’t like roller coasters at theme parks and I certainly don’t like them when it comes to the baseball season - we need this to get done.

How much closer are we to a 2020 MLB season? | ESPN

“This was a substantive offer that, perhaps for the first time, made a deal seem possible. Likely, even.” - these are the words we all want to hear…BUT, that’s exactly what I said last week when Commissioner Manfred gave his vote of “100% confidence” for the season and we’ve seen how that turned out.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve learned to temper your expectations throughout the course of these negotiations over the last three months. Honestly, even the last three hours have been a zig-zag of emotions.

As of when I’m writing this, Wednesday night, it seems like baseball is going to be back in the middle part of July. If any of this information still holds true come Thursday morning when it’s published, I’ll count that as a personal victory. Hey, maybe we even have an actual agreement by then. Fingers crossed.