*Photo from the New York Post*
With so much in doubt in the baseball world right now, Rob Manfred went to the podium on Thursday and said the MLB regular season would start on time. Yeah, not so sure about that one. Manfred also discussed the current state of the CBA negotiations that have hit a standstill.
Manfred said in his press conference on Thursday that "I'm an optimist, and I believe we will have an agreement in time to play our regular-season schedule. I consider missing games as a disastrous outcome for this industry."
Later on, Manfred said that the start for spring training will not be delayed, saying it was "status quo." Basically, spring training will start as scheduled on February 14, but since the lockout is still ongoing, only players not on a team's 40 man roster will report to camp on Monday. Everyone on a 40 man roster is still banned from contacting the team or using team facilities.
MLB and the MLBPA's last meeting for negotiations was a little over a week ago, and almost nothing got done, with the MLBPA later rejecting a request for federal mediation to assist in talks. Manfred said on Thursday that MLB plans to make a "good faith, positive proposal" to the MLBPA on Saturday, when the next meeting between the two sides is scheduled.
Manfred talked about that meeting, saying that "You're always one breakthrough away from making an agreement. That's the art of this process. Somebody makes a move. And that's why we'll make additional moves on Saturday that creates flexibility on the other side and what seemed like a big gap on this topic or that topic isn't such a big gap anymore."
However, things aren't all tense between both sides. Things have actually been agreed to. Manfred said that MLB and the MLBPA have agreed to eliminate draft pick compensation for teams who's free agents sign elsewhere in the free agency period, and that both sides have agreed to adopt a universal DH, bringing the DH to the NL permanently.
There are still plenty of issues and values that remain unsolved, and time is quickly decreasing to agree on a CBA before the opening day scheduled for late March becomes seriously jeopardized. We are now 70 days into this lockout, the second longest stoppage in baseball history. Let's hope the light at the end of the tunnel gets closer.
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