MLB averted disaster by agreeing to end lockdown, but other risks remain

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred had a big smile on Thursday night as he announced the return of baseball.

After nearly 100 days of owner-imposed lockdown, MLB has agreed new 5 year collective bargaining agreement with the MLB Players Association on Thursday. In this deal, players will see an increased minimum wage and $50 million total prize money for young players. Owners get 12 post-season expansions and jersey patches to generate new revenue.

But most importantly, MLB will be playing on a 162-game schedule after Manfred, and team owners have been playing a “deadline” strategy and initially threatened to cancel matches and not pay players. .

“The way the collective bargaining process is designed to work under the hood – it’s actually driven by two things,” says Manfred. “Time and economic leverage. No deal goes together before those two things develop in a way that you find common ground. I think we made a deal when we could reach an agreement.”

However, despite the deal and the whole season remaining intact, MLB’s business may have suffered some damage.

While the MLB was caught up in the labor negotiations, consumer price index increased, Russia started a war in Ukraine, and gas prices skyrocketed. That means small-market and uncompetitive MLB clubs in particular could be hurt if cash-strapped fans can’t raise enough money to buy tickets.

Sale season may have helped alleviate this potential problem.

“It’s very important,” Conway said. “The day after last season, you don’t just want to tell the fans that the schedule, ticket prices and ticket packages are seasonal. That season is essential.”

He added: “There will be some markets where the recovery will be quick – Los Angeles, New York – but also a lot of markets – Baltimore, Tampa, Miami – they’ve had a whole winter that they’ve had. unable to take advantage of the sale of the season.”

On Thursday night, MLB apologized to fans.

“I know the past few months have been difficult,” Manfred said. “There’s been a lot of uncertainty at a time when there’s a lot of uncertainty in the world. Like how the collective bargaining process works.” “But I’m sorry for that.”

“Let me say this about deadlines,” Manfred said on Thursday. “Using deadlines, and extending deadlines, and figuring out when to set and when to push back is part of the art of collective bargaining.

“And that’s an important art form in making a deal,” Manfred added.

When asked if MLB has the upper hand, as the players still make up a significant economic base in the game, Manfred replied that it is not a matter of “who is superior to whom”. “My view is – there’s only one win, and that’s reaching an agreement. We have one,” he said.

Manfred has said he will work harder at building relationships with the players, some of whom have called for his removal. He then labeled the terms of the deal — which included a $700,000 minimum wage increase with $20,000 per year increments — an “olive branch” for the players to mend the bond. broken relationship.

“One of the things I had to do was foster a good relationship with our players,” Manfred said. “I tried to do it. I didn’t succeed in it.”

Manfred said he phoned MLBPA chief executive Tony Clark “and expressed my desire to work with him. And that will be my priority going forward to try to do well. commit.”

With the closures over, Conway suggested the league address fan dissatisfaction by relying on national events, including “Field of Dreams” Game between the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds.

MLB returns to Dyersville, Iowa, in a ballpark built next to a cornfield, repeating scenes from the 1989 film starring Kevin Costner. Last year’s Field of Dreams game was a Fox viewership success, delivering averages 5.9 million viewers.

Additionally, Conway said MLB will use fan giveaways around the 2022 All-Star Game to be held in Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium. But the health of the players will be crucial in determining the success of those national events.

The lockdown wiped out much of spring training, a time when players prepare their bodies for a 162-match campaign. Normally, players have almost two months to prepare, but since MLB will begin the new year on April 7, the players only have three weeks.

On Friday, Clark said the health of the players was a concern this season with another round of short-term training in the spring. He referenced the MLB’s 2020 season when spring training was disrupted due to the pandemic.

After the sport shut down in March 2020, MLB didn’t start again until July – weeks before the start of the 60-game campaign. MLB returns to a 162-match schedule in 2021. But, after a year when the players’ habits were affected by Covid, injuries piled up.

Stan Conte, a former MLB head coach, was quoted last June in New York Times after he noticed an increase in leg injuries, including hamstring, during spring training in 2021. Also, in the 2020 seasonstars, including Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees, missed time because of a leg injury.

“Those (injuries) are always a concern,” Clark said Friday, responding to a CNBC investigation into the matter. He added that MLB players are adjusted throughout the year, and “we take comfort in that, but we’ve always been mindful of the schedule and how the travel mixes with it.”

There can be overuse of muscle leading to injury as MLB needs to make up about 90 games that have been postponed due to lockdown. In a typical season – pre-Covid – this is up from 39 MLB games rescheduled in 2019, 54 games in 2018 and over 30 games in 2017.

MLB will use doubles to make up most of its games in 2022, though it’s not yet clear how the league will reformulate it. But it can extend three to five days into the season, which usually ends in early October.

In addition to injuries, another concern for the MLBPA: unvaccinated players. Restrictions in Canada do not allow unvaccinated players to enter the country. As a result, players who miss Toronto games due to immunization status will not be paid and will lose service time.

MLB told CNBC that data from 2021 shows that 81% of “level 1 personnel,” including players and key staff with access to players, are fully vaccinated.

Under previous employment agreements, MLB players were prohibited from advertising for gambling companies, including casinos. In 1979, Hall of Famer Willie Mays has been banned from MLB for accepting a promotional agreement with Bally’s. MLB revoked the ban in 1985.

The MLBPA did not provide specific details about the rules of the transaction. However, the agreements will likely mimic other agreements that allow players to use their intellectual property in advertisements that use non-MLB logos and apparel.