Baseball’s best player added his voice to the chorus of players blaming MLB and Commissioner Rob Manfred for the cancellation of the first two regular season series.
A day after the league-instituted deadline came and went with no new collective bargaining agreement, Mike Trout expressed his frustration on social media.
“I want to play, I love our game, but I know we have to do this CBA well,” the three-time MVP tweeted Wednesday.
“Instead of negotiating in good faith, MLB locked us out.
“Instead of negotiating a fair deal, Rob canceled games.
“The players are united. For our game, for our fans and for every player who comes after us. We owe it to the next generation.
When the old CBA expired at midnight on December 2, Manfred and the owners decided to lock players in before going six weeks without making a new offer.
The league and the MLB Players Association then met for nine straight days in Jupiter, Fla. over the past week and appeared to finally be making progress until talks broke down again on Tuesday. Before its 5 p.m. deadline, MLB made its “best and last” offer, which the union quickly declined.
It remains to be seen how many more games will be called off before the two sides agree on a new CBA – Manfred said the next negotiating session won’t take place until Thursday at the earliest – but Trout and his teammates have made it clear that they are ready to stick together for as long as it takes to get the deal they feel they deserve.
The normally reserved trout previously came into the crosshairs with Manfred in 2018, when the commissioner indicated the Angels outfielder would be an even bigger star if he tried harder to market himself – addressing one of the burning issues baseball about its best players not being marketed well enough. Trout then released a statement saying he was “not a little guy” and that “everything is fine between the commissioner and me.”
