MLB deal took 11 months of bargaining, most moves at end

NEW YORK (AP) — Rob Manfred had just made a 6 o’clock decision to cancel a second week of games, and MLB Deputy Commissioner Dan Halem was thinking the lockout could go on quite a while longer.

Then at 6:24 p.m. on March 9, a new proposal from union deputy general counsel Matt Nussbaum plopped into his inbox.

By the time Halem left the office that night, he recalled thinking: “I thought we had a chance to get it done.”

After 11 months of bickering in bargaining, Major League Baseball’s labor contract came together in just a few hours on March 10.

Talks had broken off over an international draft, but Halem’s outlook changed in the short time between Manfred green-lighting the cancellation announcement and MLB’s publication of the news release at 6:30 p.m.

Labor relations in baseball is a mix of banter and bluster, tenacity and tedium, revising and resisting.

In the end, there was not a single face-to-face meeting in the final 24 hours as the sides negotiated on the telephone and through email.

Manfred’s cancellation decision came four hours after the last in-person session. MLB staff sent the union an edit of Nussbaum’s email that night, and after some back-and-forth in the morning, players accepted.

Halem convened a Zoom of the labor policy committee at 10:30 a.m. on March 10, and at noon Senior Vice President Patrick Houlihan emailed to chief negotiator Bruce Meyer, general counsel Ian Penny and Nussbaum what was labeled a best-and-final offer to preserve a 162-game season and full pay, attaching a 3 p.m. deadline.

The union executive board met by Zoom starting at 1 p.m., and Meyer texted Halem a little before 2 p.m. asking for more time.

Veteran baseball writer Jon Heyman tweeted the balloting in what appeared to be real time, first at 2:50 p.m.: “Union executive...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/MLB-deal-took-11-months-of-bargaining-most-moves-17013762.php