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Latest On Potential Changes In Shortened 2020 Season

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Major League Baseball has now made clear its hope for players to report to a rebooted training camp on July 1 and a July 24-26 opener. ESPN’s Jeff Passan tweeted last night that the league expects the MLBPA to respond to those dates and the health and safety protocols by 5pm ET today.

Exactly what the final iteration of those health-and-safety protocols will look like isn’t yet clear, although there are some standing indications of what to anticipate. There’s been plenty of back-and-forth about what changes might be put into place for the 2020 season, and while it’s all subject to change until the two sides have a formal agreement, it’s worth taking a pass through where things stand.

The Athletic’s Jayson Stark tweeted yesterday that a universal DH in 2020 was included in the initial version of health and safety protocols. The lack of a formal agreement means that the arrival of the universal DH in 2020 isn’t yet official, but MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that “both sides see value” in its implementation — at least for this season. The two parties will presumably discuss its implementation in future seasons this winter.

Also likely to remain in place, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, will be the realignment that sees each team play only within its own division and against the five teams of the corresponding division in the other league. The exact permutations of that scheduling arrangement could take a variety of forms (e.g. a pair of three-game series and one four-game series against divisional opponents, plus one four-game series against each of the five teams in the opposing league’s corresponding division), but the goal will be to generally limit travel schedules to the extent possible, not that it’s a perfect setup for all clubs. It’s not as though Seattle and Arlington are exactly next door, for instance.

The travel schedule impacts the Blue Jays, in particular. The lone Canadian club in MLB, the Jays’ scheduling would appear to be up in the air after Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau extended the U.S./Canada border closure for non-essential travel until July 21. Non-essential air travel into the U.S. is still permitted, but returning to Canada would not be so straightforward.

Toronto’s Triple-A club is housed in nearby Buffalo, N.Y., so perhaps that could be deemed an acceptable alternate site, but that remains speculative. The Blue Jays last week closed down their spring facility in Dunedin, Fla. indefinitely after a player who’d been in contact with some of his Phillies peers displayed COVID-19 symptoms. The Wall Street Journal’s Jared Diamond suggests that the Jays could share Tropicana Field with the Rays.

Other changes may well be on the horizon. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale wrote over the weekend that the league and union had already agreed to begin extra innings with a runner on second base in an effort to avoid marathon games. (Pitchers would not be charged with an earned run if said runner scores.) They’ve also discussed the possibility of allowing already subbed-out players to reenter the game once it reaches extras and even discussed the possibility of ties in 2020, per Nightengale.

None of that is set in stone until the MLBPA formally agrees to the league’s health and safety protocols. While the ridiculous length and contentious nature of the scheduling half of return-to-play negotiations should caution against any assumptions that they’ll be approved without any pushback at all, we’ll get a better sense of where things stand by 5pm ET today.

MLB Announces 2020 Season

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9:26pm: The players are indeed expected to respond favorably to the league’s requests regarding reporting timeline and health and safety protocols, Jeff Passan of ESPN reports on Twitter. So long as the final points can be tidied up, it seems the resumption of play will be underway within a week.

7:29pm: The 2020 season is now slated to proceed under the terms of the late March agreement previously reached between MLB and the players’ association. The league has issued an announcement stating that the owners unanimously agreed to launch the campaign after further negotiations with the players failed to result in a new deal.

The campaign will ultimately be established at sixty games in length, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, though the league announcement doesn’t so specify. Rather, the announcement asks that the players inform the league as to the readiness to begin Spring Training (part deux) before assessing schedule length. It seems the season will go for sixty games so long as the players agree to report for preparation by the first of July. Assuming the players do indeed report by that point, Opening Day would be set for the weekend of July 24-26.

The other key element left open in the league’s announcement is agreement upon a health and safety protocol. Recent reporting indicates that the sides were working through a few final issues, with a general expectation that there’d be a deal. Indeed, the union’s own statement indicated as much earlier tonight.

While there’s now a clear path to a 2020 campaign, it’ll leave both sides without some of the key benefits they had sought. The league wished for an expanded postseason, while the players sought more regular season contests. Each side clearly stood to benefit somewhat from those concessions — the players would’ve had a cut of the playoff revenue; the owners would’ve had a longer season to boost long-term branding and earning opportunities — but they still couldn’t bridge the final gap for a fully negotiated new agreement.

This move comes right on the heels of the players’ decision to reject the owners’ final offer for a settlement. The players may well have done better if indeed the campaign comes in at sixty games, as the league’s final proposal provides. But the acrimony on both sides has shown no signs of abating. And the lengthy and public standoff over money — all in the midst of a pandemic and social unrest — has certainly not made the best impression on fans.

The league may have avoided a heftier labor cost in 2020; the players may finally have found some unity. But the game isn’t exactly glimmering at the moment. And the stage is clearly set for a monumental labor standoff with a wildly uncertain free agency and collective bargaining negotiations on the horizon.

Resolving things by reverting back to the late March agreement means that there are some open questions left to be debated. The sides have debated the meaning of the deal — in particular, how it’s to be interpreted in the case of a fan-free season — ever since it was signed. The union has reportedly threatened a grievance even if a season is installed by the commissioner, though the prospects for that course of action are uncertain at the moment.

Athletics Announce Three Draft Signings

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The Athletics announced that they have inked three drafted players. Second rounder Jeff Criswell, third rounder Michael Guldberg, and fourth rounder Dane Acker are all now under contract.

With these additions, the A’s have two remaining unsigned players. First rounder Tyler Soderstrom and fifth rounder Stevie Emanuels have yet to put pen to paper.

Criswell landed a $1MM bonus, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports on Twitter. That leaves over $200K for the club to put to use on other signings. Acker landed right at the slot value of $447,400, per MLB.com’s Jim Callis (via Twitter). It’s not clear yet what Guldberg will take home.

Both Criswell (Michigan) and Acker (Oklahoma) are right-handed collegiate hurlers. Baseball America rated the former 53rd among draft-eligible players, citing his sturdy mid-nineties heater and suitably robust frame. The latter doesn’t possess loud tools, but is considered a well-rounded hurler who could perhaps end up in the back of a rotation one day.

As for Guldberg, he was an on-base machine at Georgia Tech, posting a silly .465 OBP over 393 career plate appearances. Unfortunately, his hit tool isn’t accompanied by power and scouts aren’t convinced he’ll remain a center fielder over the long haul.

Latest On Mets’ Sale Efforts

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Reporting earlier today made clear that Alex Rodriguez and Jenifer Lopez have had success lining up some wealthy investors to join them in pursuit of the Mets.

It seemed initially that there was another deep-pocketed participant in the A-Rod-J.Lo group. Per Charles Gasparino of FOX Business (Twitter link), Florida Panthers owner Vincent Viola had joined the fray along with previously rumored Mike Repole.

It turns out that is indeed the case, but that Viola’s public emergence doesn’t really add to the pot. As Tim Healey and Jim Baumbach of Newsday report, Viola is actually working with Repole. The pair are said to be willing to invest to the $250MM level.

It seems there could be other contributors as well — as one might expect, given the anticipated cost of a New York baseball franchise. While the sale price will obviously droop due to the coronavirus uncertainty, it’s still a marquee asset in the sports world.

The current Wilpon ownership group is interested in wrapping up a deal by the end of 2020, per the Newsday report. And it seems the current package of assets would not include the revenue-producing SNY network, which will obviously bear on the level of outside interest and price that can be achieved.

That timeline is of interest, as it makes clear that this is a near-term proposition. Those who followed the recent sale of the Marlins will recall that there was still plenty of uncertainty at this point on the calendar. A deal was consummated in August, in time for the new ownership group to prepare for a full first offseason.

Manfred Not Expected To Immediately Order Resumption

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Earlier tonight, the MLB Players Association voted against a MLB proposal to start the 2020 season — seemingly setting the stage for commissioner Rob Manfred to order a season schedule based upon the late-March agreement between the parties. But there’s no imminent plan for Manfred to do so, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today Sports (via Twitter).

Just what Manfred and the owners are planning next isn’t yet clear. Further delay could provide some public relations cover for ownership, which has sought to drive down labor costs by staging a shorter season. But such a tactic risks strengthening the players’ case in a potential future grievance action. The agreement required Manfred to make “best efforts to play as many games as possible.”

Manfred and all thirty team control persons will speak on a conference call this evening, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post (via Twitter). But the league’s next move may not even be decided on the call. One might have anticipated that there’d be greater internal clarity by this point, but it seems the league still has a need for further deliberation before it decides how to handle the players’ (widely anticipated) rejection.

Giants Have Trimmed Long-Term Payroll Obligations

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2020 salary terms still need to be sorted out. But what about what’s owed to players beyond that point? The near-term economic picture remains questionable at best. That’ll make teams all the more cautious with guaranteed future salaries.

Every organization has some amount of future cash committed to players, all of it done before the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe. There are several different ways to look at salaries; for instance, for purposes of calculating the luxury tax, the average annual value is the touchstone, with up-front bonuses spread over the life of the deal. For this exercise, we’ll focus on actual cash outlays that still have yet to be paid.

We’ll run through every team, with a big assist from the Cot’s Baseball Contracts database. Prior entries can be found here. Next up is the Giants:

*Includes buyouts on club options over Evan Longoria, Johnny Cueto, Buster Posey, and Wilmer Flores

*Reflects remaining portion of Evan Longoria salary owed by Rays

*Includes remaining signing bonus obligation to Johnny Cueto

(click to expand/view detail list)

MLBPA Votes Against MLB Season Restart Proposal

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5:17pm: Per an official MLBPA statement: “While we had hoped to reach a revised back to work agreement with the league, the Players remain fully committed to proceeding under our current agreement and getting back on the field for the fans, for the game, and for each other.”

The statement noted that the union expects to reach agreement with the league on “health and safety protocols.” The players say they “await word from the league on the resumption of spring training camps and a proposed 2020 schedule.

5:15pm: It is now Manfred’s turn to act. MLB is expected to issue some kind of statement, at the least, this evening, according to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times (via Twitter).

5:00pm: The Major League Baseball Players Association has voted to reject the latest MLB proposal for the resumption of the 2020 season, per Jesse Rogers and Jeff Passan of ESPN.com (via Twitter). This result was widely anticipated after the league informed the union it would not increase its offer of a sixty-game regular season.

Per the report, the players’ executive board voted 33-5 against the latest MLB plan. That’s not the same as voting against a season altogether. MLB and the MLBPA struck a deal in late March that would govern the campaign if commissioner Rob Manfred decides to announce a resumption of play. It is also still possible the league and union could still return to the bargaining table.

The trouble with that preexisting agreement, of course, is that the two parties have held different interpretations of it from the jump. If Manfred simply declares a start date and season schedule, with full game-for-game pay but a shorter schedule over which the players can accrue salary, it’s possible (perhaps all but certain) that the MLBPA will end up filing a grievance action seeking more money from the league. That would also mean a return to the regularly bargained postseason structure and other general rules (such as the DH in the National League) that had been slated for modification.

MLBPA Voting On 60-Game Proposal

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4:27pm: The vote is taking place right now, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter).

12:48pm: The meeting has been pushed from 3pm ET to 5pm ET, tweets Jim Bowden of The Athletic. The union is still expected to reject the proposal, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets.

11:25am: The Major League Baseball Players Association is meeting this afternoon to vote on the league’s proposal for a 60-game season, ESPN’s Enrique Rojas reports (Twitter links). Reports over the weekend had indicated that a union vote would take place “in the coming days.” Thirty-eight players — the MLBPA’s eight-man executive subcommittee and each team’s individual union rep — are weighing in.

Tensions flared again last week as commissioner Rob Manfred and MLBPA chief Tony Clark again failed to even agree on what defines an agreement. The two had an in-person meeting early last week, and Manfred came away suggesting that the meeting produced a “jointly developed framework that we agreed could form the basis of an agreement.”

Despite the use of “could form the basis” in that statement (as opposed to a concrete declaration of accord), ownership was of the mind that an agreement had at last been reached. The union disagreed and countered with a 70-game schedule. Angry at receiving a counter when they believed a deal to be in place, owners informed the MLBPA that they would not play a season greater than 60 games in length and would not make a counter-offer.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported last night that the league was prepared to make some concessions outside the length of schedule, including its willingness to give up expanded playoffs and the universal DH in 2021 in the event that a full season isn’t played. That would serve to avoid a scenario where ownership gets the expanded 2021 playoffs it has clearly coveted even as players don’t see the salary or length of schedule for which they so ardently pushed over the course of this interminable back-and-forth.

Citing an email from Manfred to Clark, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports that next Monday (June 29) is the earliest that a relaunched Spring Training could resume. Manfred himself is quoted saying as much. Nightengale also indicates that the earliest the league believes the season can commence is July 26.

There’s been longstanding speculation that the league’s ultimate goal was to wait this out so long that the length of season the MLBPA desired simply isn’t feasible because of the calendar. Whether that motivation is accurate, we’re nearing that point. A June 29 launch to a new training camp that lasts three weeks would bring us to July 20. That might leave some slight wiggle room to start the season earlier than the July 26 date conveyed by Nightengale, but the league has made abundantly clear that it has no plans to extend regular-season play beyond Sept. 27 or to play more than 60 games.

If no agreement is reached, it’s likely that Manfred will implement a season of shorter length (and without an expanded postseason format). At that point, the union could file a grievance arguing MLB did not make its “best efforts to play as many games as possible,” which was stipulated in the March agreement that allows Manfred to impose a season length.

All of this back-and-forth regarding the season length is happening while the league and union discuss safety protocols following a week that saw 40 players and team personnel test positive for the coronavirus. The manner in which the league formulates a plan to limit and (when they do inevitably occur) address similar in-season outbreaks is the other major and far less clear component of return-to-play negotiations.

White Sox Sign Garrett Crochet

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The White Sox announced today that they have signed their first-round draft pick, southpaw Garrett Crochet. He will receive a $4,547,500 signing bonus.

Garrett Crochet (via Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics)

 

That payday precisely matches the slot value allocated to the eleventh overall selection. The Chicago organization is still working on agreements with fifth-rounder Bailey Horn and second-rounder Jared Kelley, the latter of whom is expected to sign for well north of his slot value.

Crochet is valued for his big left arm. He pumps upper-nineties heat and controls it reasonably well. While his slider and change will both require fine-tuning, there’s said to be some real hope that he could round into a high-grade big-league starter.

If everything doesn’t quite come together? In that case, it still seems reasonable to anticipate that Crochet will be a compelling power arm from the bullpen, perhaps in the sort of multi-inning role he occupied at times at the University of Tennessee.

Most draft pundits (Fangraphs, MLB.com, Baseball America, ESPN.com) graded Crochet as a mid-first round talent. Keith Law of The Athletic acknowledged the upside, but obviously was swayed more by the concerns in grading Crochet as his 39th overall prospect.

Photo courtesy of University of Tennessee athletics department.

A-Rod, J. Lo Reportedly Add Billionaire Mike Repole To Mets Bid

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Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez have added some more clout to their bid to buy the Mets, bringing billionaire Mike Repole into their group, per ESPN’s Darren Rovell (Twitter link). The 51-year-old Queens native co-founded Glaceau/Energy Brands, the original creator of Vitamin Water, in addition to co-founding the BODYARMOR sports drink company. Repole also owns his own stable which has several notable racehorses.

It’s not the first time that Repole has expressed an interest in purchasing his hometown club, per Josh Kosman and Zach Braziller of the New York Post. He previously expressed interest in 2011 but did not make a formal bid. And while Repole’s roughly $1 billion net worth eclipses the combined worth of Rodriguez and Lopez by most calculations, Kosman and Braziller report that A-Rod and J. Lo are still expected to be the designated control owners of the team.

According to the Post, Repole is one of two investors working with Galatioto Sports Partners — an investment bank that could contribute approximately a quarter billion dollars to the bid. The A-Rod/J. Lo group has also been working with JPMorgan in their efforts to compile a bid, and other investors could yet join the fray. Rovell notes that the bid from Rodriguez and Lopez is “very real.”

The Rodriguez/Lopez group is up against a group headed up by Philadelphia 76ers/New Jersey Devils owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer in their pursuit to buy the Mets. No other suitors are known right now, although other groups could yet emerge. Regardless, it’s become increasingly clear in recent months that Mets ownership, led by the Wilpon family, are amenable to a sale of the team. Back in December, New York billionaire Steve Cohen reportedly agreed to a framework on a gradual sale that would see him increase his stake in the club to 80 percent by 2025. However, that deal fell apart in February, when Cohen officially pulled out of the deal.

Given the economic crash that has been brought about by the ongoing pandemic, it’s all but certain that the Mets would sell well shy of the $2.6 billion figure that was reported back in December. However, the lost revenue to date — and any further projected losses even if a 2020 season commences — could also increase the Wilpons’ urgency to sell a majority stake in the team.

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