The first two series of the MLB regular season have been cancelled, per Commissioner Rob Manfred's Tuesday press conference. The failure by owners and players to come to a consensus by the March 1st deadline marks the first time in 27 years that games will be missed due to a labor dispute.
KMOX's Kevin Wheeler analyzed Manfred's statement in Thursday night's edition of Sports Open Line.You can hear the full discussion in the audio at the top of this page.
Rob Manfred: We worked hard to avoid an outcome that’s bad for our fans, bad for our players, and bad for our clubs. I want to assure fans that our failure to reach an agreement was not due to a lack of effort by either party. The players came here for nine days. They worked hard. They tried to make a deal, and I appreciate their effort. Our committee of club representatives committed to the process. They offered compromise after compromise, and hung in past the deadline to make sure that we exhausted every possibility of reaching an agreement before the cancellation of games.
Kevin Wheeler: None of that is real. The owners locked the players out in early December, and did not present another offer…did not initiate talks for another six weeks. So, you can tell me all you want about "Well, in the last ten days, we…" Yeah, okay. Where were you for the two and a half months before that? Why were there no offers from you? When you announce the lockout, you announce that this was to spur talks. "We want to push this thing forward," then you did nothing for six weeks. Sorry, but my BS monitor was going off.
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RM: So far, the parties have failed to achieve their mutual goal of reaching an agreement. The unfortunate thing, maybe the most unfortunate thing, is that agreement- the one we’ve offered to our players- offered huge benefits for our fans and for our players.
KW: That’s BS. What benefit to the fans? Are ticket prices coming down? Are their TV packages getting cheaper? Are the blackouts all across the country being lifted for fans? There was nothing in that that was better for fans.
RM: We have listened to the Players Association throughout the process. A primary goal of the Players Association has been to increase pay for younger players. I said in Orlando, and I’ll say it again: We agree and share that goal. We offered to raise the minimum salary to $700,000- an increase of $130,000 from last year. We offered to create an annual bonus pool of $30 million for our very best young players. In total, we’re offering nearly a 33% raise to almost two-thirds of major league players, and we’re adding more than $100 million annually in additional compensation for this younger player group.
KW: What he's not saying there, is that what they’ll do is continue to not pay veteran players. They're not adding payroll. They're making more money for the younger players, but that will come at the expense of players that are deeper into their careers. That’ll come at the expense of guys that are getting to be 30, 31, 32 years old, and they'll just say, "You know what? We’re not gonna pay you guys at all. You’re old, and we’ll go with the younger, cheaper guys."
You can hear the full discussion in the audio at the top of this page.