Rob Manfred Says He's 'Not Confident' MLB Will Have a 2020 Season

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred reportedly is no longer sure there will be a 2020 baseball season of any kind.

ESPN Jeff Passan noted Manfred revealed as much to colleague Mike Greenberg on Monday as part of the network's "The Return of Sports" special. Manfred said he is "not confident" there will be a season "as long as there's no dialogue."

He added "that real risk is going to continue" with the owners and players union continuing their labor dispute about how the league will move forward with payments in a shortened season amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Passan noted the commissioner's comments stand in stark contrast to the ones he made to ESPN last week when he suggested "unequivocally we are going to play Major League Baseball this year."

According to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times, the league informed the MLBPA on Monday there would be no season unless the union agreed to not explore potential legal options:

Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic reported "the commissioner's office is loathe to impose a season on players against their will when the Players Association likely would counter such a move by filing a claim for financial damages."

On Monday, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported the league's owners held a conference call and both sides have elected to stop offering economic counterproposals that have continuously been rejected.

That means, if there is going to be a season, the immediate focus will be on agreeing to safety and health protocols.

"It's just a disaster for our game, absolutely no question about it," Manfred said Monday, per Passan. "It shouldn't be happening, and it's important that we find a way to get past it and get the game back on the field for the benefit of our fans."

This comes after Major League Baseball Players Association executive director Tony Clark released a statement Saturday saying the players union rejected the league's most recent proposal, adding that "it unfortunately appears that further dialogue with the league would be futile. It's time to get back to work. Tell us when and where."

According to Passan, Manfred told Greenberg he thought the union was going to file a grievance against the league saying the owners did not fulfill their obligation to play as many games as possible. The commissioner believed such a move would have been a "bad-faith tactic":

"I had been hopeful that once we got to common ground on the idea that we were gonna pay the players full prorated salary, that we would get some cooperation in terms of proceeding under the agreement that we negotiated with the MLBPA on March 26th. Unfortunately, over the weekend, while Tony Clark was declaring his desire to get back to work, the union's top lawyer was out telling reporters, players and eventually getting back to owners that as soon as we issued a schedule—as they requested—they intended to file a grievance claiming they were entitled to an additional billion dollars. Obviously, that sort of bad-faith tactic makes it extremely difficult to move forward in these circumstances."

As Clark's letter suggested, Manfred can impose a dramatically shortened season as part of the initial March agreement.

Players would earn full prorated salary in such a scenario, although owners would receive all of the playoff money from a postseason that would not be expanded.

Owners have looked to move away from full prorated salaries in ensuing proposals, which did not sit well with players. That is especially true since owners often benefit from additional financial windfall in profitable years and have continued to fight for smaller salaries in the one year that has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In April, Forbes reported the average team is worth approximately four times what it was a decade ago, with every club but the Miami Marlins worth more than $1 billion.