Orlando, Fla. — Commissioner Rob Manfred, speaking Thursday after concluding 2½ days of meetings with owners of all 30 Major League Baseball teams, remains optimistic the 2022 season will start on time and did not rule out the possibility of spring training opening as scheduled next week — though the latter seems a longshot.
“The status of spring training is no change right now,” Manfred said, speaking in a conference room at the Waldorf Astoria, his first public address since instituting the lockout on Dec. 2. “We are going to have a conversation with the Major League Baseball Players Association about the calendar. We understand where the calendar is, but until we have that conversation and see how that session goes, it’s no change.”
Manfred and ownership’s bargaining committee will meet with the players association Saturday, presenting a new proposal with concessions that Manfred said would make the new collective bargaining agreement “better (for the players) in every respect than the expired contract.”
“The clubs, our owners, fully understand how important it is to our fans that we get the game on the field as soon as possible,” Manfred said. “We want to reach a fair agreement with the players association and we want to do that quickly.
“We have listened carefully throughout this negotiation and we have moved toward the players on key areas in an effort to address their concerns.”
Among those concessions are the institution of a draft lottery, which the players have asked for to help discourage teams from tanking.
The players also are seeking salary increases for younger players, a goal Manfred says the clubs share. To that end, the new proposal includes a “significant” increase in the minimum salary and establishing, per the players’ request, a bonus pool for the younger, pre-arbitration star players.
“Under our proposal, every single pre-arbitration player would be better off than in the previous agreement,” said Manfred, who estimated that over the term of the proposed new agreement, the increased minimum and bonus pool would grow player salaries by “hundreds of millions.”
Manfred said the new proposal will include a universal designated hitter and the elimination of draft-pick compensation that previously was tied to team’s signing high-end free agents.
“These changes would improve the free-agent market by creating additional jobs that are often filled by veteran players and by eliminating the draft pick compensation,” Manfred said.
The owners, Manfred said, also will present “meaningful proposals directly corresponding to the players’ long-standing concern about service time for young players,” and a proposal to expand the playoffs to 14 teams per league.
“In total, the proposals we’ve made will move the agreement decidedly in the players’ direction,” he said.
Where the owners didn’t, haven’t and presumably won’t budge is reducing revenue sharing or altering the competitive balance tax (luxury tax threshold) — two vehicles designed to help level the playing field for smaller-market clubs.
“Changing the current agreement by taking resources away from clubs with limited revenue would make the game less competitive,” Manfred said.
Manfred, who begrudgingly admitted the tone of these negotiations has been more contentious than the four previous collective bargaining agreements he’s negotiated dating back to 1998, believes the concessions proffered by the owners in this new proposal could create some momentum toward a deal.
“You are always one breakthrough away from making a new agreement,” he said. “That’s the art of the process. Somebody makes a move. That’s why we will make additional moves on Saturday that creates flexibility on the other side and what seems like a big gap on this topic or that topic isn’t such a big gap anymore.”
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Manfred, though, didn’t accept the premise, which has played out especially on social media through player tweets and posts, that there’s a critical lack of trust between he and the players. He cautioned that there was, from his perspective, a mismatch between the rhetoric and the proposals.
“I don’t pay a lot of attention to social media,” he said, seemingly off-script and choosing his words carefully. “Most of the commentary that’s out there is tactical. In the history of baseball, the only person who has made a labor agreement without a dispute — and I’ve done four of them — is me. Somehow during those four negotiations, players and union reps figured out a way to trust me enough to make a deal.
“And I’m the same person today that I was in 1998.”
Manfred reiterated that he was an optimist and believes an agreement will be reached in time to play a full 162-game schedule this summer.
“I see missing games as a disastrous outcome for this industry,” he said. “We’re committed to making an agreement in an effort to avoid that.”
Manfred estimated, based on the high volume of injuries players incurred after the shortened 20-day training camp following the COVID-19 shutdown, a four-week training period would be required ahead of opening day.
He also believes spring training could start within three or four days of an agreement.
“There are some logistical things that have to be handled between an agreement and the opening of camp,” he said. “The biggest of which is the players getting where they need to be. This also has to be ratified by both parties, and those two things can be done simultaneously.”
The ball is now in the hands of union president Tony Clark and his negotiating team.
“We are doing everything we can to get a deal done for our fans,” Manfred said. “We remain committed to offering solutions and will once again offer the players association a proposal Saturday in an effort to move the process forward.”
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky