Notes: ESPN deal, Rob Manfred talks salary cap again

ESPN doesn’t seem to believe that the MLB relationship is over after 2025, and Rob Manfred is trying to put the cat back in the bag again.

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ESPN opted out of the final three years of their national broadcasting deal with MLB, which wasn’t a surprise, necessarily, especially given the league’s devaluing of their own product in deals with (arguably) Apple and (inarguably) Roku. Over at Sports Business Journal, though, comes sourced word from ESPN that they don’t see this as the end of the relationship between the two after 2025.

Someone might want to let MLB know about that, since the league has been publicly airing its grievances with the worldwide leader and its coverage — or lack thereof — of MLB’s games. You’ll also find plenty of fans who aren’t broken up about ESPN ending things, since they, a little too regularly, act like they’re embarrassed to be covering baseball games. Which doesn’t do much for growing the game, no?

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Notes: Jackie Robinson, Pirates debt, MLB broadcasts

A response to the federal government trying to erase Jackie Robinson, another responding to claim the Pirates are in debt, actually, and Rob Manfred’s latest on MLB’s broadcast plans.

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I had no inside knowledge that Steven Goldman would have a reaction to the Department of Defense briefly taking down Jackie Robinson’s military history to relabel it as “DEI,” but I knew he was good for it, and that it would appear if I would only be patient.

The reward for that patience was significant: Goldman wrote a wonderful rebuttal, explanation, whatever you want to call it to what went into the decision to remove Robinson, the history behind what made his being there in the first place such a significant deal, and some strong jabs at Thomas Jefferson’s trying-to-have-it-both-ways routine, for good measure.

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An announcement! The good kind!

A little update on me and this newsletter and also everything else.

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Good morning, Marvin Miller’s Mustache readers. I’ve got a bit of news to share, and it involves this newsletter a bit. First thing: I accepted an offer for a full-time gig last week, and I start next week. I can’t say where it is yet, but everyone will know in just a few days, anyway.

It’s an editing/writing position, so, I get to stick around in an industry that I was pretty sure I was only going to be allowed to remain in as a freelancer and creator of a couple of independent publications. It’s hard not to think those things when you’ve been unemployed since late-2018 despite applying to a whole bunch of other jobs, but such is the state of said industry. Here goes, though, I’m getting another shot, and I’m thrilled for it.

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Notes: Rays and the Trop, MLB scrubs diversity, the A’s and Las Vegas

The latest from two stadium subsidy quests, and MLB’s recent political erasures and silence.

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The Rays declined the massive public subsidies they had in place for a new ballpark in St. Petersburgh, but they haven’t abandoned the city or Pinellas County just yet. Which, to be frank, is a little odd, but it seems that current own Stu Sternberg wants to buy a bit more time, but not 30 years’ worth, while he figures out whatever’s next.

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The Rays won’t have a new stadium in St. Petersburg after all

The Rays are likely to stay in the Tampa region, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll be in St. Petersburg.

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Earlier this week, at Baseball Prospectus, a piece of mine published explaining why it was that commissioner Rob Manfred — along with some team owners — were pressuring Stu Sternberg to sell the Rays. This one is free to read with an email login, so you can check out the whole thing if you’d like, but the key idea to take from it for right this second is that Sternberg was very likely to blow up the stadium deal he had been working on with St. Petersburg practically forever, because he only realized it was a bad deal for the Rays after agreeing to it.

Over the weekend, The Athletic reported that Manfred and Co. would even go so far as to use collective bargaining to pull a reverse A’s on Sternberg, if he couldn’t be convinced to sell the team before then. Basically, rather than using bargained and temporary revenue-sharing funds to help the Rays along in their search, like happened with the A’s, the other owners would instead use the CBA to throttle the Rays’ share of the revenue. If Sternberg barely has the funds he needs to operate the team at a high level now, or to pay for the increased costs that the delay in coming to a final agreement supposedly created, then having his revenue-sharing checks cut down was not going to help matters.

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In case it wasn’t obvious, Tony Clark is against a salary cap

It’s still good to hear it said, given everything else backwards happening in the world.

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You knew this to be true without the executive director of the MLB Players Association coming out and saying it, but just in case you needed the reassurance, here it is. Tony Clark has now said, out loud, that a salary cap “is not necessary,” despite MLB owners anonymously grumbling or outright saying the opposite to the press.

That’s per the Baltimore Banner, which has even more of a reason to cover this story than most, given Orioles’ owner David Rubenstein’s coming out in favor of a cap at the World Economic Forum in Davos, since MLB owners possess the kind of wealth that gets you interviewed while at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

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Tony Clark, Rob Manfred comment on likely 2026 lockout

Rob Manfred wants to pretend he didn’t say the things he said, but hey, guess what.

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With spring training well underway and games that count in the standings a few weeks off, MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark has been making the rounds. On Friday, he spoke to a few media members regarding the possibility of a lockout in 2026, when the current collective bargaining agreement ends. The union is historically quiet when it comes to speaking publicly about what’s going on with negotiations and the like — that’s actually how these things are supposed to go, you know, but given the incessant leaks and proclamations from the ownership side, you’d never know it — however, Clark had something to say this time around, with good reason:

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Notes: Twins ownership, Padres payroll

The Twins lost out on new owners who might end up owning division rivals instead, while the Padres are… well, uh. What are they doing?

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Remember back six or so weeks ago, when the Twins were expecting that they’d have new owners in place by Opening Day? Those plans might have changed, as the potential owner the current ones, the Pohlads, had been interacting with instead pulled out of the running. The reason? To increase their investment as minority owners in the White Sox.

Billionaire brothers Justin and Mat Ishbia were apparently the only ones that the Twins had engaged with to the point of their already being vetted by both the team and MLB, but they ended up choosing the White Sox, instead. This makes a couple of things clear: the Ishbias were considering buying the Twins because they were available, but apparently didn’t have a strong attachment to that franchise, specifically. A larger investment in the White Sox coming now tells us that the pair likely sees themselves as the future owners of that franchise: Jerry Reinsdorf is 88 years old, you know, and while he’s pure evil, it’s not like he’s immortal or anything. Probably.

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Notes: Brewers and the World Series, A’s in Vegas timetable

The owner of the Brewers had a quote you just have to stare at for a minute, and Rob Manfred talks about the projected A’s future

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Now here’s a fun quote that surely won’t come back to haunt Brewers’ principal owner Mark Attanasio:

“Is my job to win a World Series,” Attanasio said, “or is my job to provide a summer of entertainment and passion and a way for families to come together?”

That’s from a Bob Nightengale story over at USA Today, on why the Brewers refuse to spend “despite decade of NL Central domination.” First off, dominating the NL Central is a lot like an elementary gym teacher kicking the ass of every kindergartener at basketball. It doesn’t mean he stands a chance against a real team. Second, oh boy, Mark Attanasio.

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Notes: IRS priorities, sports owners taxes, the cost of steel beams

It’s bad news all around. Well, okay, at least one thing is kind of funny if you aren’t a sports team owner.

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Let’s do a Friday roundup based on the idea that the return of Donald Trump to the White House means some potential changes are in store on the sports side of things. None of these issues are full-blown stories on their own at this point, but there’s something to watch for with each of them.

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