On Tuesday, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred finally made the declaration most baseball fans had feared: regular-season baseball games have been canceled. A week’s worth of face-to-face lockout negotiations in Jupiter, Fla., between MLB and its Players Association has failed to produce terms on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The two sides endured more than 16 hours of negotiations Monday before MLB gave the MLBPA a 24-hour extension – until 2 p.m. PT Tuesday – to find a resolution before canceling games. Tuesday’s meetings didn’t result in a deal. Shortly after, Manfred announced that the league has canceled the first two series of the season.
What’s that mean for the Giants and the A’s?
San Francisco was scheduled to open the season at San Diego on March 31 against the Padres for a four-game series, before starting a three-game road set against the Milwaukee Brewers. As it stands now, the Giants would open their 155-game season on Friday, April 8 at home against the Miami Marlins.
Oakland’s seven-game homestand to begin the year has been wiped out. The A’s were slated to host the Los Angeles Angels for four games beginning March 31 before the Detroit Tigers were supposed to play a three-game series at the Coliseum. The A’s season has also been reduced to 155 games and is tentatively scheduled to begin on Friday, April 8 at the Philadelphia Phillies.
From the outside looking in, it doesn’t make much sense why it took so long for the two sides to finally meet face-to-face. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser shared comment from Giants player rep Austin Slater on the situation:
Progress was clearly made over the past week, but the two parties are still at an impasse regarding key issues the Competitive Balance Tax, the pre-arbitration bonus pool and league minimum salaries. ESPN’s Jeff Passan shared info on the MLB’s final offer, which was nixed by the MLBPA.
The luster of Opening Day is gone. The A’s, for example, are now scheduled to start the season on a 10-game road trip before their home opener on April 18 against the Baltimore Orioles. That’s a nearly three-week wait for their fanbase, which is already dwindling due to surging season-ticket prices, a team that seems on the verge of another rebuild, and the front office’s public flirtations with Las Vegas on the new stadium front.
Giants fans never seem to get to celebrate Opening Day at McCovey Cove, so maybe that’s a silver lining in all this for San Francisco. But there’s nothing to say there won’t be future cancellations, so don’t hold your breath.
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In the end, this is a loss for everyone involved.
The owners seem willing to take one on the chin for long-term financial gains, but are still going to lose revenues from spring training and regular-season games. Their product is also being hurt in the long term with a second shortened season in three seasons. Let’s not forget how ugly negotiations were before the 60-game season in 2020. That’s to say nothing of the owners’ collective image as tight-fisted businessmen with no heart for baseball, only the bottom line.
The players are once again in weird limbo. For many young players trying to gain their footing in the minor leagues, the past few years have been devastating. Minor league affiliates and draft rounds have been slashed, and most players lost the entire 2020 campaign due to the pandemic. Imagine being a 21-year-old prospect in 2019 and now you’re 24 with so much uncertainty around the game. It’s gotta be scary out there for the next wave of young baseballers.
The fans really get bamboozled in all of this. They should be sitting on the grass berms in the outfields in Arizona and Florida, drinking a beer and getting back to a further sense of normalcy after the pandemic. Losing out on the spring training experience is one thing, but a seemingly preventable regular-season work stoppage is another. This whole situation will undoubtedly make it harder for some fans to fork over their money to franchises this summer.
The Giants should be playing the Chicago Cubs Tuesday in Mesa. The A’s should be playing the Los Angeles Dodgers in Mesa.
Manfred has failed to show leadership in these critical situations throughout his seven-plus year tenure as commissioner. He has allowed the almighty dollar to lead baseball into treacherous territory and it could have ramifications for years to come.
