Ken Rosenthal out at MLB Network for criticizing commissioner

MLB Network has decided not to renew the contract of veteran reporter Ken Rosenthal, according to a report by Andrew Marchand of the New York Post.

Rosenthal on Monday confirmed the news on his Twitter feed, saying, "Can confirm MLB Network has decided not to bring me back. I’m grateful for the more than 12 years I spent there, and my enduring friendships with on-air personalities, producers and staff. I always strove to maintain my journalistic integrity, and my work reflects that. Nothing else is changing for me professionally. I am proud to remain part of the great teams at The Athletic and Fox Sports."

According to Marchand's report, Rosenthal is believed to be out because of criticisms he made of Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred during the summer of 2020. At the time, the league was trying to figure out a way to play a season at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a column for The Athletic, Rosenthal wrote that Manfred's legacy as commissioner was on the line, and he stated that Manfred was guilty of performing a "massive flip-flop" in the press.

In fact, Manfred was guilty of a massive flip-flop. One minute, the commissioner was saying the 2020 "unequivocally" would happen. Less than a week later, he said was "not confident" that there would be a season. Remember that flap? Manfred rightfully got roasted for it on Twitter.

That apparently didn't sit well in the league office, and Rosenthal was quietly kept off the MLB Network airwaves for three months, before returning at the belated Aug. 31 trade deadline during the 60-game, pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

Now, about 18 months later, Rosenthal is out for good, and I don't think this will sit well with most baseball fans. Rosenthal is a fair and respected reporter, and his ouster paints the commissioner in a further bad light.

Is Manfred incapable of accepting criticism? Does he believe he should not have to answer difficult questions? Sure looks like Manfred's skin is a little thin, and that's not a good look. 

And it isn't as if Rosenthal is going to be silenced. As he noted on Twitter, he still has his jobs at The Athletic and Fox Sports. He's still got quite an audience, and even without the MLB Network gig, fans who want his take on the state of the game will know where to find him.

MLBPA votes down 60-game proposal

The MLB Players Association voted, 33-5, on Monday to reject Major League Baseball's proposal to start the 2020 season, sources say.

The vote was conducted by the union's eight-member executive committee, plus one player representative per team.

The proposal called for:

• a 60-game season
• a 16-team expanded playoff
• prorated pay for players
• no additional salary guarantees should the season be canceled because of COVID-19
• the union to waive its right to file a grievance claiming the owners did not negotiate in good faith

The guess here is that fifth and final statement was the sticking point.

Where do we go from here? Well, we wait for MLB commissioner Rob Manfred to tell the players "when and where" the 2020 season will begin, if it begins at all.

I think there are three ways this could go. MLB could cancel the season, fearing that COVID-19 could torpedo the playoffs in October, thus cutting off a large source of revenue that owners are counting on.

Or, Manfred could call for a season of 48 games, get the regular season over as quickly as possible, and hope for the best with the usual 10-team playoff.

Or, owners could be altruistic, have Manfred mandate a 60-game season and hope the playoffs get completed.

As a baseball fan, I hope the last option will happen, but rationally, I know better. We are looking squarely at one of the first two options I mentioned.

A 75% yes vote would be required to pass any plan Manfred chooses to implement. If eight owners vote to cancel the season, there will be no season.

Finally, a glimmer of hope in the MLB negotiations

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred issued a statement Wednesday, and here it is:

“At my request, Tony Clark and I met for several hours yesterday in Phoenix. We left that meeting with a jointly developed framework that we agreed could form the basis of an agreement and subject to conversations with our respective constituents. I summarized that framework numerous times in the meeting and sent Tony a written summary today. Consistent with our conversations yesterday, I am encouraging the Clubs to move forward and I trust Tony is doing the same.”

Nothing has been agreed upon yet, but The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich posted a good article Wednesday night outlining the progress toward a deal that could start the 2020 season.

During the face-to-face meeting between Manfred and Clark, the owners offered a major concession: Players will get their full prorated salaries if the season is played. The league proposed a 60-game season that would start about July 19 or 20 and take place over 70 days.

The number of games remains a sticking point, according to The Athletic report. Players would like 70 games, of course, to maximize their earnings. The owners want 60 games, but with the season being played over a period of 70 days, perhaps there is room for compromise in there. Maybe 65 or 66 games in those 70 days?

If the season is 60 games, players would receive about 37% of their salaries, which is more than in any of the previous offers made by the owners. If 65 games are played, players would get 40% of their salaries, and I think that might be enough to broker a deal.

The league also has asked the union to consent to expanded playoffs in 2020 and 2021, and waive its right to file a grievance over scheduling. The latter would be a big concession from the union, but I don't think it's too big of an ask given that the owners have moved to allow full prorated salaries to be paid.

Let's hope this is the beginning of the end of this whole sad episode, and that we can have baseball back in about a month.

Rob Manfred takes his shot at title of worst commissioner ever

Rob Manfred on June 10: "We're going to play baseball in 2020, 100 percent."

MLB Players Association: "Tell us when and where."

Rob Manfred on June 15: "I'm not confident [there will be a season]. I think there's real risk, and as long as there's no dialogue, that real risk is gonna continue."

You can't help but hate the commissioner of Major League Baseball. After all, he hates baseball, a game many of us love. He's threatening to pull the plug on the 2020 season on the same day he's appearing on an ESPN special called, "The Return of Sports."

Oh, the irony.

Add his gross mismanagement of the restart negotiations to a list of transgressions that includes his push to destroy minor league baseball, his asinine handling of the electronic cheating scandal and his plans to implement a laundry list of ridiculous rule changes, and you have the worst commissioner in the history of baseball.

These talks on the potential restart of the season amid the COVID-19 pandemic have been a farce, with the owners repackaging the same offer over and over again. Every thing they've offered ends in the same place, with the players being offered between 33% and 35% of their prorated pay. They're not going to take that; get a clue, Manfred!

And it's asinine for the owners to say the players are acting in "bad faith." The owners have done nothing but act in bad faith for years, screwing players over with service time manipulation, refusing to sign middle-tier free agents, stocking rosters with Quad-A players to "tank" seasons in the name of better draft positions, and downplaying players' abilities in arbitration hearings.

Granted, none of these things are against the rules. Some say it's "smart business," but one man's "smart business" is another man's bad faith. Over the past few years, we've routinely seen players get outleveraged on the business side of the game, and what's the response? "Welp, the players need to negotiate a better deal."

OK, fine, and now the players are, in fact, taking a hard line to try to get a better deal. Can you blame them? I can't.

I'm left with the conclusion that the owners simply don't want to play this year, because they will lose money, and they are sending Manfred out there to do their bidding.

Newsflash: In the middle of a pandemic, nobody is making money this year. It's about mitigating losses and living to fight another day right now. MLB is going to have even more trouble when another day comes because of all the bad will it is building up with fans and players right now.

I mean, let's be honest about this. If attendance suddenly shot up, would owners tack on some of those extra revenues to player contracts? Of course not. The contracts were signed, and a deal is a deal.

The same is true when the opposite happens. There will be no attendance, so revenues are going down. But you know what? The contracts were signed, and a deal is a deal. Both sides have to abide by the agreed upon terms regardless of what the overall revenues are.

The players are entitled to earn the salaries they negotiated, prorated to the number of games they play -- if any -- this season.

If Manfred was any kind of leader at all, he'd explain this to the owners. The owners are stewards of the game, and they are responsible for its long-term well-being. Right now, they are hurting the game's long-term well-being in the name of trying to avoid losses in 2020.

It's a failing strategy.