Cubs News: The fate of the 2020 season is in Rob Manfred’s hands now

The MLBPA executive board voted down the league’s latest offer by a 33-5 tally.

With the players’ executive board overwhelmingly voting against the latest offer from MLB, a lost 2020 calendar is now closer than ever. Whether or not we see Cubs baseball this year will now be decided by commissioner Rob Manfred – hardly a comforting thought.

Per Jesse Rogers and Jeff Passan, the MLBPA wanted no part of league’s proposed 60-game slate this summer. Here’s what the union had to say in a statement released once the news broke this evening.

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“While we had hoped to reach a revised back to work agreement with the league, the Players remain fully committed to proceeding under our current agreement and getting back on the field for the fans, for the game, and for each other.”

Manfred is expected to make some sort of statement later tonight – no one really knows what it will consist of. This whole affair has been nothing short of a debacle, one where, in the end, fans are the ultimate losers.

What’s it all come down to? Money. Because of course it does. isn’t it funny how Cubs fans’ view of team owner Tom Ricketts had soured in the last two years in the wake of what most of us considered to be frugal measures and penny-pinching. Now, the view of owners, as a whole, couldn’t be worse in the game.

At this point, between the back-and-forth between the two sides and the still-raging COVID-19 pandemic, I have literally no faith we will see baseball this year. Even if Manfred institutes a 60-game schedule, there’s no guarantee teams will finish that run on top of the postseason before the potential second wave of the virus hits this fall.

To put a cherry on top of the whole darned thing, if Manfred does drop the hammer (thus risking a potential grievance from the MLBPA) and lay out a plan for baseball this year, all the proposed changes we’ve been talking about for the game go out the window.

That means no universal DH across both the American and National League and no expanded postseason picture in 2020 or 2021, either. Now, the two sides could, at least in theory, come back to the negotiating table. But really, why should be tell ourselves that’s a realistic possibility?

The owners – and Manfred – have shown themselves to be money-hungry above all else, focused on only the short-term financial picture rather than the game, its future – and the fans who’ve lined these owners’ pockets for years. This is nothing short of a slap in the face and a kick to the ribs to baseball fans everywhere.