It’s Hot Stove season and the regular rumor mill of team and player option decisions is running hot. We know who has a qualifying offer and we’ll argue about who will accept those offers between now and November 18. Spoiler alert: Kyle Tucker is likely to decline the qualifying offer he got from the Cubs while there is at least a chance that Shōta Imanaga accepts.
As hot as the rumor mill is right now, it’s got nothing on the rumblings threatening to boil over as MLB and the MLB Players Association
(MLBPA) attempt to stake out their sides in what looks like a heavy weight matchup for the ages over the next Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). On that front, there were some truly shocking details emerging from last summer’s confrontation between MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and Phillies superstar, Bryce Harper. As Jeff Passan wrote at the time:
Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper stood nose to nose with Rob Manfred during a meeting between the Major League Baseball commissioner and the team last week, telling him to “get the f— out of our clubhouse” if Manfred wanted to talk about the potential implementation of a salary cap, sources told ESPN on Monday.
The confrontation came in a meeting — one of the 30 that Manfred conducts annually in an effort to improve his relations with every team’s players — that lasted more than an hour. Though Manfred never explicitly said the words “salary cap,” sources said the discussion about the game’s economics raised the ire of Harper, one of MLB’s most influential players and a two-time National League MVP.
Yesterday new details of that dustup emerged via the Agent Provocateur podcast, I’ll link the clip below, but first a summary of those new details from Newsweek (emphasis mine):
Manfred was visiting with the Phillies as part of an annual visit he hosts with all 30 clubs’ players. Harper reportedly told Manfred to “get the (expletive) out of our clubhouse,” when Manfred mentioned the idea of a salary cap. Manfred reportedly replied by saying he would not leave and continued the meeting.
Those details from ESPN were the only details on the altercation until a new report from sports agent Allan Walsh. During an appearance on “Agent Provocateur,” Walsh reported that, later, a “deputy” of Manfred’s allegedly threatened Harper.
“Don’t ever say that again to the commissioner,” Walsh said, quoting what was allegedly said to Harper. “Don’t ever disrespect him again publicly like that. That’s how people end up in a ditch.“
You can watch the relevant clip on the Agent Provocateur YouTube channel (the relevant clip begins at minute 11, the discussion of clubhouse visits starts at 17:44):
Allan Walsh is not merely a bro on a sports podcast. He’s the Co-Managing Director of Octagon Hockey. He’s reporting based on first-hand accounts he was told, he does his due diligence setting up all the requisite “allegeds” within this reporting. He understands the gravity of what he’s reporting.
There are a couple of items worth focusing on in these developments. Manfred’s visits to all 30 clubs last season may have been couched as an effort to improve MLB and player relations, but it was clearly a PR mission on behalf of the owners who want a salary cap, which has been a non-starter for the MLBPA for decades. Sending the commissioner in to seed the owner’s stake in a fight over an item you know their union representatives are diametrically opposed to 18-months before a negotiation that has the entire industry dreading a lockout already seemed pretty suspect to savvy baseball watchers. It screams of an attempt to break professional sports strongest union to save some billionaires a few hundred more million dollars that probably should go to the players.
Additionally, it’s notable which details leaked during the season and which didn’t come out until now. The original reporting, while not favorable for either side was framed as Manfred just trying to know the players better with a light side of union busting and one of baseball’s highest paid players flying off the handle. The fact that there is an MLB deputy of Manfred threatening players’ safety with what can only be described of as mob tactics is more by far the most egregious detail to be leaked so far, and we’re not hearing about that until now.
Threatening players who are aligned with their union could signal a particularly dark new chapter looming during this next CBA negotiation. Threats against superstars with impunity makes me wonder what other details from these 30-team meetings and other conversations have yet to emerge.
