Owners unanimously approve 60-game season
After the MLBPA rejected the latest owners' proposal for a 2020 season by a resounding vote, MLB quickly moved to implement a season per the March 26 agreement between the two sides, as the coronavirus pandemic was still ascending.
The statement above tells us a lot of what we wouldn't see in a 2020 season. Sources are indicating that the implemented season, approved unanimously by team owners, would run 60 games.
What's tricky about this invoking of a season by ownership, rather than a negotiated season, isn't the first piece of information Rob Manfred wants from the MLBPA (ability to start spring training by July 1). It's the second part: Players signing off on the "operating manual" of health protocols that will keep them safe. Presumably, the Operating Manual is not as intensive as necessary, given the recent rash of player coronavirus infections, and the MLB plan to have all 29 teams play in their home cities (the Blue Jays would be playing in Florida, presumably sharing the Tropicana Dome with the Tampa Bay Rays).
Also, by rejecting the owners' latest plan and forcing Manfred to impose a season, the MLBPA has not forfeited its right to a grievance, which most certainly will be filed on behalf of players given ownership's bad-faith bargaining.
It's not inconceivable that players will refuse to report given the dangers present per the pandemic, risking a "bad faith battle" that would ultimately see the MLBPA awarded damages that to a large degree offsets salary losses for punting 2020.
Actor (final credit: murdered by Albert Einstein in "Carnage Hall"), musician (Ethnocentric Republicans), and Nerf hoops champion, Wiffleball aficionado and onetime bilingual kindergarten teacher, Brett Ballantini also writes about baseball, basketball and sometimes hockey, for the NBA, MLB, NHL, and Slam, Hoop, Sporting News, the Athletic, SB Nation and others. He was CSN Chicago’s Blackhawks beat writer when their 49-year Stanley Cup drought ended in 2009-10, and took over the White Sox beat after that. He currently is the editor-in-chief of South Side Hit Pen and beat writer for Inside the Rays. He also wrote a book about Ozzie Guillén but is running out of space, so follow him on Twitter @BrettBallantini and he'll probably tell you even more about himself than you ever wanted to know.
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