MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is 100% confident games will happen in 2020.
The players and owners have been involved in intense negotiations for games to return during the coronavirus pandemic, and it doesn’t really seem like we’re close to a resolution. Despite that fact, Manfred has no doubt there’ll be baseball this year. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
According to Jon Heyman, Manfred guaranteed Wednesday during an appearance on the MLB Network that games would happen, and pointed out that he has the authority to mandate players return.
Commissioner Rob Manfred on @MLBNetwork just guaranteed that there will be baseball this year. 100 percent he said. As has been noted, if there’s no agreement with players Manfred has the right to mandate players return to field as long as they receive prorated pay.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 10, 2020
Yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it. How many times are we going to have to hear about the MLB and ongoing negotiations before something gets done?
Until I see baseball on TV and the parks are open, I’m not buying into a single thing. At this point, it’d be foolish to do so.
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Also, what is Manfred going to do if he mandates players return and they just don’t show up? Is he going to stack the league with replacement players?
That seems like a disaster waiting to happen, and I highly doubt that’s how it will go down.
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It’s truly unreal how badly the owners and players have botched this situation. Every other major sports league is ready to roll. The MLB isn’t close to a return at all.
At this point, I’m not even sure who is to blame. The players don’t want to lose a bunch of money and the owners don’t want to lose the season.
At this rate, we just won’t get baseball in 2020.
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We’ll see what happens, but I’m certainly not getting my hopes up.