Cardinals' John Mozeliak noted payrolls will inevitably reflect that revenues are going downGETTY IMAGES
Cardinals President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak after the World Series noted that MLB revenues are going down, and as a result payrolls also will go down, marking the "clearest sign yet of what people across the industry have suspected ever since the coronavirus threw the league’s financial landscape into a state of unprecedented turmoil," according to Jared Diamond of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Owners are "earning less money, and they will attempt to pass those losses onto their highest-paid employees -- also known as the batters and pitchers on the field." This anticipated period of "widespread retrenchment comes at a critical moment for the sport’s fragile labor relations, which have deteriorated in recent years to their lowest point" since the strike of '94. Owners and the MLBPA "need to figure out how to proceed with a second pandemic season" in '21, "replaying a negotiation that sparked a bitter dispute this past summer." Baseball’s prognosis for the future "still appears healthy, in spite of all the virus-induced upheaval." But MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has "spent the past month trying to lay the groundwork for a winter of austerity" while owners have "laid off hundreds of employees throughout their business and baseball departments." MLBPA Exec Dir Tony Clark said that, next year, the players’ "expectation is to have a full 162-game season, even if continued virus protocols are required." But Diamond notes owners "might see things differently if restrictions on large gatherings are still in place" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 11/2).
WINTER IS COMING: THE RINGER's Ben Lindbergh writes Manfred and the 30 owners have "reliably wrung the maximum frustration from challenging circumstances by making unsubstantiated and apocalyptic pronouncements about the pandemic’s impact on the viability of their businesses." Considering the "adversarial and often petulant tenor" that the talks between the league and union "took this spring and summer, the resumption of their dialogue is reason for dread" (THERINGER.com, 11/2). In Boston, Sean McAdam wrote teams will be thinking "long and hard about committing to new expenditures" this offseason. For the upcoming offseason, it has been made "abundantly clear: if you thought the last two winters resulted in a drag on free agent interest and offers, buckle up." Early indications are that those two free agent classes were "nothing compared to what's about to take place" (BOSTON SPORTS JOURNAL, 10/29).
