Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said he's "hopeful" that concerns over the coronavirus pandemic and financial considerations can be overcome and allow a 2020 season to go ahead.
Speaking on CNN in a "Global Town Hall," Manfred insisted he was optimistic that MLB and players would come to terms and open a season that was due to start on March 26.
MLB has pitched a reopening plan to the MLB Players Association that would see play begin in July, with strict protocols in place to screen for COVID-19 and prevent spread of the deadly virus.
The union has reportedly balked at the suggestion that players take a further pay cut from the pro-rated salary rates they already agreed upon in April for a season expected to be shortened to about 82 games per club.
Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Blake Snell said Wednesday that he was concerned about potential long-term health damage if he contracted COVID-19, and said he wasn't interested in assuming that risk for a lesser amount of money.
"It's not worth it," Snell said.
"I love baseball and that, but it's just not worth it." But Manfred said he believed clubs and players would come to terms.
"Whenever there's a discussion about economics, publicly people tend to characterize it as a fight," Manfred said.
"Me, personally, I have great confidence that we'll reach an agreement with the players association both that it's safe to come back to work and work out the economic issues that need to be resolved." Manfred said loss of the entire season would be "devastating" for MLB clubs.
"We're a big business, but we're a seasonal business," Manfred said.
"Unfortunately, this crisis began at kind of the low point for us in terms of revenue. We hadn't quite started our season yet, and if we don't play a season the losses for the owners could approach $4 billion."
"We're trying to mitigate that risk with the repeated point-of-care testing to make sure that people who have had contact have not been exposed, and by obviously removing those individuals that have a positive test, they will be quarantined until they have two negative tests over a 24-hour period."
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