Rob Manfred: There Will 100% Be a Baseball Season

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MLB commissioner Rob Manfred did interviews with MLB Network and ESPN today, and his message in both interviews was clear: There will 100% be an MLB season in 2020.

What remains unclear is how we get there. While he indicated that MLB owners will present an offer that moves towards the players' direction, we do not know yet what that will be. The players' last offer was an 89-game season with full prorated salaries. Owners have previously offered a 50-game season with full prorated salary, or a 76-game season with 75 percent prorated salary. They don't seem far apart but these people would disagree over a nickel if it came down to it.

One reason Manfred can stand up there and sound so confident is that MLB owners believe their March agreement allows them to set the amount of games with a full prorated salary; thus, if it came to it, they could just mandate a 50-game season.

Hopefully, both to maximize games we get to enjoy this season as well as for the sake of avoiding future work stoppages, the owners actually offer something the players are willing to do. If they try to just ram a 50-game season in at their will, it's going to cause a lot of acrimony.







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Ryan Glasspiegel grew up in Connecticut, graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and lives in Chicago. Before OutKick, he wrote for Sports Illustrated and The Big Lead. He enjoys expensive bourbon and cheap beer.