Ben Frederickson: MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is a problem in the clubhouse
Ben Frederickson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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A player’s productive postseason experience matters when he joins a World Series contender before the trade deadline.
A pitcher snapping a skid with a dominant performance that sparks a winning streak means more than a number in the win column.
Even the most advanced metrics in a value-obsessed sport can’t quantify a clubhouse presence. When it comes to team morale, guys are either one of two things. A minus, or a plus.
Here’s something Major League Baseball owners should take a moment to consider when they gather this week for their meetings in Orlando, Florida.
What is commissioner Rob Manfred’s score with players, and how is it hurting negotiations, or lack thereof, during this ongoing labor dispute?
“He (Manfred) has galvanized us in ways he can’t imagine,” an anonymous MLB player said to Forbes. “He underestimates how unified we are in this moment.”
Other players are more than happy to put their name on their criticism.
“Manclown and his boys need to figure it out and stop ruining the game of baseball,” Cubs starter Marcus Stroman tweeted.
“Not a single negotiation with the guy has been in good faith,” Trevor May said during a recent livestream. “He doesn’t do good faith things.”
The Mets reliever was just getting warmed up.
“Him and the people he put around him, his team, all the executives, are going to leverage every single ounce,” May said. “This is not good faith. This is not a mutually beneficial situation. They want to win. So, in the past, there has been an element of, like, respect for the game of baseball. And tradition. Romantic. Those things are not on Rob’s radar. They are just not that important to him. It’s just that simple.
“He doesn’t really think about the fan as a fan. He doesn’t really think about the players as people. He thinks about all of us as dollar signs, and he wants to move the pieces in order to maximize the number of dollar signs that go to his bosses.”
It’s one thing when fans and even media hammer a commissioner. But these are players going to town, publicly. And the examples of an all-out verbal assault against baseball’s boss are becoming easier and easier to find as the owner-led lockout lengthens to the point of impacting spring training, increasing the likelihood that the regular-season schedule gets marred.
Is Manfred an easy target? Of course. He gets paid handsomely to be the bad guy in situations such as this. His actions have made it clear he’s less interested in being an ambassador for the game, and more interested in maximizing revenues for owners. And don’t forget this part. He’s quite good at it.
But there is a downside to his cold-blooded way of doing business. It has contributed to the crumbling of the relationship between the league and its players. That’s an easy problem to overlook almost always — except for when a collective bargaining agreement expires, and some level of compromise is required to determine the next one.
The latest non-news from the front line of the lockout provides a perfect example. Players quickly rejected the owners’ request to bring in a neutral mediator to potentially move the stalled conversation forward. One reason was because players were told a counter proposal, not a call for mediation, was coming. Another reason was because they felt like owners were making a public relations play. A standoff that really could use a neutral third party didn’t get one, at least not yet, and in large part because of distrust.
Baseball is going to be blue on Valentine’s Day. The most popular topic in American sports after the Super Bowl will be bashing baseball for failing to launch. Maybe it always was going to be this way, but I can’t be convinced it had to be this bad, and it’s going to get worse, I’m afraid.
Manfred might be good at making money for his bosses, but he has made a lot of unforced errors as this labor fight loomed. I’m not talking about the bizarre rule changes and multiple controversies about the composition of the baseball. I’m talking about how those distractions and others got more attention from the commissioner than inching his sport out of the direct line of the world’s most telegraphed punch. America’s pastime is about to take it square on the chin, and Manfred leaned baseball into the blow.
Figuring out how to play through the pandemic could and should have softened the edges of this conversation. It sharpened them instead. At a time when the average American is intolerant of players and owners fighting about money, baseball is preparing to melt down. Many are responsible, but who is more responsible than Manfred? He led the game here.
When players talk about their distaste of tanking, service time manipulation and how the growing difference between league revenue and average player salaries are a sign of not enough teams wanting to win, they can point to a quote.
It’s Manfred’s, who in 2020 had to apologize for calling the World Series championship trophy named after his position, “a piece of metal.”
When players unapologetically negotiate like they have been negotiated against for years, they have a way of doing business to reference.
It’s Manfred’s, whose league was caught in 2019 handing out an unofficial award to the front office that did the “best” job limiting player salaries in arbitration.
Fair or not, Manfred is perceived by some players as an enemy more than an opponent, at a time when he should be viewed as a partner. Fair or not, the commissioner is being being publicly insulted by some players instead of respected as a business ally. Fair or not, complicated negotiations about the game’s economics would be tense without the presence of so much bad blood, and Manfred so often has made players’ blood boil.
If Manfred’s biggest strength in the eyes of the owners is that he is good for business, his bosses should also be sure to consider the downside that is playing out now.
Craig Ruttle
MLB and the MLB Players Association met in-person Monday in Manhattan for more than two hours, their second bargaining session since the lockout started in December and the most substantive talks yet. The league made a proposal to the players' union via Zoom on Jan. 13. Monday was viewed as the MLBPA's counter. They're also meeting again Tuesday, which represents progress.
David Zalubowski
The MLB side included Rockies owner Dick Monfort, who's the chairman of baseball's labor policy committee, as well as deputy commissioner Dan Halem, executive vice president Morgan Sword and senior vice president Patrick Houlihan. Lead negotiator Bruce Meyer and free agent reliever Andrew Miller represented the MLBPA.
Matt Slocum
MLBPA changed its tune on two things it hopes will spur momentum in talks: time before free agency is reached and the amount of money funneled to small-market teams (like the Pirates) via revenue sharing.
MLB players can currently become free agents after six years. The union had been arguing for a system that got some there in five depending on age — 30 1/2 to start, then eventually reaching 29 1/2 .
The union had previously asked that the revenue-sharing process was decreased by $100 million, but on Monday it dropped that ask to $30 million.
LM Otero
Tough to say, although a return to the bargaining table 24 hours later obviously isn't a bad thing. It's also important to consider context or the rotten relationship that exists between these two parties; common ground or positive vibes are hard to find.
Furthermore, the owners have certain things that they've described as non-starters in negotiations: any tweaks to the revenue-sharing model, plus how soon players can reach free agency and the timeline to arbitration.
Accepting the current system for free agency is a concession. The union's adjusted revenue-sharing figure was, too, although the owners might not care if they're truly unwilling to discuss a change here.
MLB players can currently become free agents after six years. The union had been arguing for a system that got some there in five depending on age — 30 1/2 to start, then eventually reaching 29 1/2 .
The union had previously asked that the revenue-sharing process was decreased by $100 million, but on Monday it dropped that ask to $30 million.
Sue Ogrocki
A lot, frankly.
Crossing free agency off the list, there's currently a sizable gap when it comes to how the two sides view the Competitive Balance Tax (or CBT) threshold.
It's currently $210 million. Owners have proposed a system starting at $214 million and reaching $220 million over a five-year period. The players are asking for $245 million. This alone tells you how far off these two groups can be.
Another key issue is minimum salary. The union wants to take the current number ($570,500) to $775,000 and $875,000 by 2026. Owners want to start at $600,000 and have it split into thirds: under a year of service, between one and two years and more than two, the latter two earning $50,000 and $100,000 more.
Those numbers, in theory, would jump $10,000 annually to reach $640,000/$690,000/$740,000 in 2026. None of this has been seriously discussed, which matters because minimum salary has a bigger impact than you might think.
Say a different minimum salary applies to 10 players per team. A jump from the current figure to, say, $650,000, would mean $79,500 per player, $795,000 per team and $23,850,000 across all 30 clubs.
Ross D. Franklin
This might be the wackiest topic discussed, in that it seems MLB wants to give some, but how the owners have done that is funky.
Service time in MLB, loosely, works like this: The first two years are team-controlled, where clubs set salaries a hair over the league minimum. The final three are decided by arbitration. The issue is the third one, where the top 22% of players in that class achieve what's called "Super 2" status and earn a fourth whack at arbitration.
Clubs manipulating service time to prevent this has long been a thorny topic, especially in Pittsburgh, and it's something the MLBPA would like to improve in the next CBA. The issue becomes how to do that.
Owners have proposed a formula-based system netting increased compensation for players with between two and three years of service time. They've also discussed a system that could net draft picks if teams place a top prospect on the opening day roster and that player thrives.
Teams would could earn a first-round pick if said player won Rookie of the Year or finished in the top three in MVP or Cy Young voting, a second-rounder for thresholds below that. One issue: Whose top 100 list are we using? Another: award voters might determine whether a team gets a first-round pick? Odd.
The formula-based system has also gained little traction. MLB previously offered to have salaries determined by WAR, and that was quickly scrapped. A concern over this latest ploy is that better compensation for players with between two and three years of service time would ultimately eliminate arbitration — something the union would like to avoid.
Some good ideas, sure, but plenty of work ahead.
LM Otero
Amazingly, yes. MLB has agreed to remove draft-pick compensation from free agents, which the union thinks could spur more offseason activity. The sides also seem aligned on having the designated hitter in both leagues and creating a draft lottery, though they differ on how to structure the latter.
To this point, the owners want to limit the lottery to three teams, with participants ineligible to draft that high in three consecutive seasons. Players want the draft lottery to expand to eight, a move they believe will at least partially address tanking.
Seems both sides are OK expanding the postseason, with owners lobbying for 14 teams and the players saying they will go to 12 — but play more games to try and match the revenue generated from a 14-game system. Advertising patches on uniforms are another thing where a solution seemingly exists.
Ashley Landis
Here's the crazy part of this whole thing. The DH has been the only on-field issue they've discussed. Nothing about pace of play, robot umps or shifts. No talk about tackier baseballs, roster limits, the use of replay or legitimately trying to grow the sport, either.
They'll hopefully get there, but neither side seems appropriately concerned with things that really do matter to fans. Would be nice to see them figure out the economic issues quicker and then concentrate on this stuff.
Charles Rex Arbogast
Baseball has endured eight work stoppages between 1972-1995 but none since.
The backdrop here is unique, too. Teams have been spending less and less on players, dragging the total number of salary dollars down to a level not seen since 2015 (a little over $4 billion). And while that won't net sympathy from regular folks, it has only made things more contentious between players and owners, who have received an increasingly larger piece of the financial pie.
That said, everyone was affected by COVID-19, which shortened the 2020 season to 60 games and delivered to owners virtually no gate revenue.
Owners contend they incurred around $3 billion in operating losses due to the pandemic-shortened season, and while it would be impossible to independently verify that figure, this much is true: Missing more games would not be good for business.
Ashley Landis
This part has been sometimes overblown. Spring training is scheduled to start on Feb. 16, so an agreement would have to come in the next two weeks to hit that deadline.
It's also entirely possible for spring training to be shortened. As long as they figure something out by late February, it should provide enough time for everyone to get to Florida and Arizona, clear COVID protocols and for pitchers to build up enough arm strength for a March 31 opening day.
LM Otero
FILE - Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred speaks during a news conference in Arlington, Texas, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021. Major League Baseball and the players’ association are scheduled to meet Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, in the first negotiations between the parties since labor talks broke off Dec. 1. The planning of the meeting was disclosed to The Associated Press by a person familiar with the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity because no announcement was made. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)
