Just at noon on Thursday, Commissioner Rob Manfred took the podium at a press conference in which he provided information related to the labor situation of the company called Major League Baseball and what is anticipated about the collective agreement that they are negotiating with the union of players.
The owners unanimously recognize that it is necessary to avoid losing games and Manfred defined the possibility of losing games of the season as a catastrophe.
The owners will present a new proposal to the union on Saturday, after the negotiations broke down on January 24 and after the players refused to accept the federal mediation requested by the owners.
Manfred said he hopes that proposal can be reached and that the players can report to spring training, scheduled to start Monday.
I don’t know how likely it is that the players will start on the scheduled date for training, but certainly a good proposal would speed things up.
Manfred conceded that they will allow the universal designated hitter, which will generate 30 new employees for the players.
In the same way, he spoke of a series of initiatives presented by the union in which they would be willing to give in.
Will players accept these moves without significantly improving the luxury tax issue or the way profits are shared, which they see as affecting competitiveness? That is the main question.
