The MLB lockout ended on Day 99, the players and owners agreeing to a deal that was approved 26-12 by the MLBPA on Thursday afternoon and then ratified unanimously by the owners just after 6 p.m.
A lot of vitriol was hurled between sides, and at both sides by outsiders, but in speaking to the media shortly after owners approved the deal, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred was actually the first to apologize for nearly 100 days of impasse.
"I am genuinely thrilled to be able to say that Major League Baseball is back and we’re going to play 162 games, and I do want to start by apologizing to our fans,” Manfred said. “I know the last few months have been difficult, and there was a lot of uncertainty…that’s sort of the way the collective bargaining process works sometimes, but I do apologize for it.”
To that end, Manfred also admitted that the players were a tough foe, in a way.
“One of the good things about collective bargaining is that it gives our players an opportunity to have input on what their workplace in the game is going to look like going forward,” he said, “and they took full opportunity to provide input during these negotiations."
But, as the deal was being reached, Manfred said he told MLBPA head Tony Clark Thursday afternoon that “we had a great opportunity for the game in front of us,” and looks forward to working with Clark as the process moves ahead.
“I hope players see this as an olive branch, and I told Tony that I hope to work with him on things that are new in the agreement,” Manfred said. “I hope that this process is a first step forward.”
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Working with the MLBPA is going to be important for Manfred, who, as Commissioner, technically works for the owners, but has to be the steward of the game in everyone’s best interests – and he admitted that he has somewhat failed at the players’ side of that coin.
“One of the things I’m supposed to do is promote a good relationship with the players; I’ve tried to do that, but I think I have not been successful in that,” he said. “I think it begins with small steps, and that’s why I picked up the phone and called Tony and expressed my desire to work with him. It’s going to be a priority of mine moving forward to try to make good on the commitment I made to him on the phone.”
That said, Manfred did double down on a couple of the owners’ moves as necessary: the lockout itself, and then the implementation of seemingly arbitrary deadlines for certain things of late.
“If we had just started the season without a lockout, I don't think we'd have an agreement today,” he said of the former, adding of the latter: “The use of deadlines and extending deadlines and figuring out when to set them and when to back off of that is part of the art of collective bargaining."
Still, as 7 p.m. hit, the lockout was lifted, and details about all of the new and compromised pieces of the collective bargaining agreement came out, baseball was officially back – and Manfred, the man in charge of the game, was adamant that not only will the game be back, but full competition will be, too.
“Looking forward, I could not be more excited about the future of our game,” he said. “I think that we made changes in the agreement to address player concerns, and I think clubs try to do the right thing; they want to win. Different people may have different views about how to do that and in what time frame, but things we added in the agreement were to address player concerns as best as we could.”
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