ARLINGTON, Texas — In order to run a sport, one must be able to wage battle on multiple fronts. Exhibit A occurred Thursday as, just seconds after running down the Players Association, baseball commissioner Rob Manfred turned his gaze toward the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, known to commoners as Minor League Baseball.
Yes, the majors and minors are clashing like frustrated parents and fed-up children at the moment.
With one year left on their working agreement, Major League Baseball proposed a dramatic realignment that called for the elimination of 42 affiliated clubs as well as a reorganization of the leagues that will continue to exist.
MLB’s concerns, as reiterated by Manfred, fall into four categories:
1. Too many affiliates’ facilities are outdated in terms of capacity for expanded staff, workout equipment and even a space for players to eat.
2. Too many leagues are so widespread geographically that players suffer physically from long bus rides.
3. The affiliates feature too many players who face little to no chance of reaching the majors, and in tandem with that …
4. The players currently get paid too little, so if there are fewer players, then they can get paid more generously.
When MLB expressed these concerns to minor league officials, Manfred said, they responded thusly: “We see all four of those problems as your problems.”
Manfred continued: “[They’d] like to keep the tens of millions of dollars in profit they make each year. They’d like to keep the appreciation of their franchise values.”
Of course, major league commissioners keep their owners happy by making moves that elevate franchise values. On Thursday, baseball approved the sale of the Royals from David Glass, who purchased the club for $96 million in 2000, to John Sherman for $1 billion.
As per MLB’s proposal, the 120 affiliates with the best facilities and geographical positioning would stay put, with each major league team running four of them. The leagues would be dramatically reformed for geographical integrity.
Moreover, the amateur draft would be cut about in half from its current 50 rounds (that has to be collectively bargained with the Players Association) and would take place after the conclusion of the College World Series. The short-season leagues, like the New York-Penn League that features both the Staten Island Yankees and the Brooklyn Cyclones (a Mets affiliate) would be replaced by extended spring training at team’s minor league complexes; the SI Yankees are designated by MLB as a team that would lose its affiliation while the Cyclones wouldn’t, although that list is fluid. The teams losing their affiliations would receive the option of entering a “Dream League,” an independent league that would be partially funded by MLB.
“At the end of the day, Minor League Baseball needs to make an agreement with us,” Manfred said. “I’m sure we probably will make an agreement at some point. But we are not going to stand by and let the dialogue or the story that’s out there be a misrepresentation of what happened.”
Minor League Baseball released a statement Thursday evening disputing Manfred’s characterization.
“We are disappointed in Commissioner Manfred’s inaccurate statements about today’s negotiating session, as he did not correctly characterize our views or our intent, but instead deflected attention from MLB’s efforts to remove Minor League Baseball from 42 communities across the country to improve the profitability of MLB,” the statement read. “It is both unnecessary and unacceptable to wipe out one-quarter of minor league teams and, in the process, tear apart the fabric of the communities in which they operate and harm both Minor and Major League Baseball. We look forward to the successful negotiation of a new contract between MLB and Minor League Baseball, preserving Minor League Baseball in these communities in fan friendly ballparks that meet all reasonable player health and safety standards.”