Opening Day is officially canceled, but lead negotiators from Major League Baseball and the Players Association met again Thursday as the two sides continue to lay the groundwork for a new collective bargaining agreement.
According to multiple reports, very little progress was made.
The discussions came fewer than 48 hours after MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred spoke in Jupiter, Florida on Tuesday following nine consecutive days of bargaining sessions that failed to lead to an agreement. During a press conference in which he announced the first two series of the regular season would be cut, Manfred smiled and even laughed, striking a tone that left many people around the sport furious.
Count one of baseball’s biggest advocates, Mike Krukow, among the outraged.
“I say replace him,” Krukow said on KNBR Thursday. “He’s got to go.”
The legendary Giants broadcaster and 14-year major league veteran has seen enough.
“I’m on board with (replacing Manfred), but if that happens, he’s going to fall out of this job and land on his two feet,” Krukow said. “He will be the next villain in the Batman movie and he’ll be a good one.”
Given the league’s reluctance to make reasonable concessions on core economic issues, it should come as no surprise that several prominent Giants players including Brandon Crawford, Evan Longoria and Alex Wood have taken to social media to voice their displeasure with how MLB has handled CBA negotiations since imposing a lockout.
Players felt blindsided during negotiations late Monday night when Manfred and owners reportedly attempted to add new language to portions of a potential CBA about a core economic issue, the competitive balance tax.
“It got to be like 12:30 and the fine print of their CBT proposal was stuff we had never seen before,” Blue Jays pitcher Ross Stripling told Sportsnet. “They were trying to sneak things through us, it was like they think we’re dumb baseball players and we get sleepy after midnight or something … They did exactly what we thought they would do.”
Krukow said those are the same tactics the league used during its last CBA negotiations and expressed anger that Manfred attempted to bullrush major changes into a possible agreement following a marathon day of bargaining.
“There is a bad guy and I’m not impressed with him,” Krukow said. “I haven’t been impressed in seven years and I think he’s taking us down a rabbit hole. I don’t know how long it’s going to last, but I’m pissed.”
Wood, who signed a two-year deal to return to the Giants before the lockout was imposed, said MLB owners were attempting to sway public opinion through the media on Monday in order to make players look bad for refusing to agree to a deal before a league-imposed deadline for the season to start on time.
“FWIW MLB has pumped to the media last night & today that there’s momentum toward a deal,” Wood tweeted on Tuesday. “Now saying the players tone has changed. So if a deal isn’t done today it’s our fault. This isn’t a coincidence. We’ve had the same tone all along. We just want a fair deal/to play ball.”
After the sides failed to reach a deal on Tuesday, Longoria pointed out that owners who have been unwilling to increase the competitive balance tax threshold are also unwilling to release detailed financial reports.
“Watching @MLBNetwork now…Wow.wow,” Longoria tweeted. “I’d just like one thing. If times are so tough for these clubs financially over the last 5 years…show us the financials. Be transparent. I guess we will see ya when we see ya fans.”
During owners’ meetings in Orlando in January, Manfred said, “If you look at the purchase price of franchises, the cash that’s put in during the period of ownership and then what they’ve sold for, historically, the return on those investments is below what you’d get in the stock market, what you’d expect to get in the stock market, with a lot more risk.”
Last week, Liberty Media, the company that owns the Atlanta Braves, released team financials that showed the franchise raked in more than $100 million in profit in 2021. The Braves and Blue Jays are the only teams that release earnings reports because they are owned by publicly traded companies.
