Manfred: No Rules Changes Coming For 2022

 

With MLB now locking its horns with the players union over a new collective bargaining agreement, one of the issues that was thought to be playing a role in the negotiations was rule changes for the game. 

Now, according to commissioner Rob Manfred, we can kiss pitch clocks, shift bans and robot umps goodbye, for 2022 at least. 

As noted by Jayson Stark of The Athletic, MLB has not made “any specific rule-change proposals” to the players. “Frankly,” the commissioner said, “based on the discussions at the table, we saw it as another contentious issue and tried to put it to one side in an effort to get to an agreement – on the theory that we could deal with it mid-term of the next agreement.”

According to Stark, however, the union wants the rule changes on the table, because "it would seem to give them more chips to play in this big World Series of Labor Poker. 'How ’bout we trade you a pitch clock for that arbitration-eligibility thing we’ve been talking up?'... It’s called leverage."

Since its been fairly obvious that the players are likely to reject all the proposed rule changes, as Stark notes, all it does to include them in the negotiations is provide the players with bargaining chips. 

And it's likely that the owners know this, of course, which is why they've decided to take it off the table. And while Manfred referred to it as putting aside "another contentious issue", it just could be that not including them in the negotiations will be contentious in itself. 

And so it goes. Strap yourselves in. Baseball's winter of labor discontent is just getting started. 

Photo Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports