The Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Board voted 33 to 5 to reject MLB’s latest 60 game offer.
The initial offer from MLB came with expanded playoffs and universal DH. MLB later made a last minute change offering to eliminate those ideas for 2021 if a full season wasn’t played, but still players rejected. Rob Manfred is now in the position to implement a mandated season, likely somewhere between 50 and 60 games.
This doesn’t mean baseball will certainly happen. ESPN’s Buster Olney ran down a list of possibilities:
And the dominoes are now likely set to tumble:
1. Implementation of a short season by MLB
2. Some players choosing not to play.
3. PA grievance
4. Upcoming free agents get destroyed in market
5. All major labor issues merely deferred to next spring.
Mutually assured destruction.— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) June 22, 2020
No official announcement on next steps have been made, but the MLBPA released the following statement:
The Major League Baseball Players Association today released the following statement: pic.twitter.com/1OnFBsoEjd
— MLBPA Communications (@MLBPA_News) June 22, 2020
