The Commissioners Office recently sent a memo to teams ordering them not to try to use the likely delayed start of major league spring training by beginning minor league spring training or mini camps earlier than normal, The Post has learned.
The Post obtained portions of a Jan. 27 memo that the league issued to all of its clubs that, among other items, stated: “Please be advised that Clubs may not adjust their previously scheduled Minor League Spring Training dates as a result of the work stoppage at the Major League level. Specifically, Clubs may not move up Minor League Spring Training in the event that Major League camps do not open on time. Clubs that have offered certain Minor League players the opportunity to report to Minor League Spring Training prior to the formal opening of camp may continue to do so, but they may not alter the start date of such opportunities as a result of a delayed Major League camp.”
Major league spring training is scheduled to begin Feb. 16. It has become extremely unlikely that a new collective bargaining agreement could be reached in time to end the MLB-imposed lockout and open camps on time. Negotiations have moved at a glacial pace with an icy relationship between management and the union, leaving the sides far apart still on the key issues more than two months since Commissioner Rob Manfred imposed the lockout.
Owners are scheduled to meet next Tuesday-Thursday in Orlando. Manfred traditionally addresses reporters at the conclusion of such gatherings and without substantial (and at this point surprising) movement by then, the commissioner is likely to announce the obvious – that major league camps will not open on time.
An MLB official said the reason for the memo was to prevent a chaotic situation if the lockout ended and a minor league camp had opened e arlier than normal.
But some clubs would have preferred to take on that risk because: 1. At this point, it is a low risk that major league camps will open on time. Minor league camps generally open around March 1, so the risk would only be for a week or two if a minor league camp or a mini camp was pushed up. 2. The major league manager and coaches could attend or even instruct without major league camp ongoing and become more familiar with the organization’s prospect base and 3. After no minor league season in 2020, it would be a way to perhaps catch up on some lost development time for prospects.
One ulterior benefit could be that seeing pictures/videos/stories about players in camp could work as at least a subliminal pressure to locked out players to want to get to camp, in part because challengers to their jobs are being watched by team officials. Would such players push the union to make concessions to get them into camp too?
One person involved in negotiations cited this as another reason not to open early: concern that if minor leaguers came in early that their major league brethren could view them as scabs or replacement players, which could be seen by the union as an antagonistic act by MLB while also potentially inflicting a career-long stigma to those in camps (non 40-man roster minor leaguers are not part of the Players Association).
In addition, there could be hesitancy due to the extra cost to begin earlier; greater than in the past because housing stipends are now going to be given to minor leaguers. Also, if some teams decide not to begin early, could it give a competitive advantage to those teams that did?
Perhaps the players most in an uncomfortable position whenever a minor league camp opens are major league veterans who have previously been part of the union and have signed a minor league contract – think of players who have done so such as Alex Claudio with the Mets and Ender Inciarte with the Yankees. To that extent, the memo sent to teams also included an item headed “Non-Roster Invitees” designed to give such players the option not to attend a minor league camp.
It reads: “In the event Major League Spring Training is delayed as a result of the lockout, Clubs may not hold a Major League camp for non-roster, non-covered players. However, players who have signed a Minor League Uniform Player’s Contract (“UPC”) that includes an invitation to Major League Spring Training must be given the opportunity – but are not required – to participate in Minor League Spring Training (including, if your Club historically has convened one, an early Minor League camp) until Major League camps open. A player who chooses to participate in Minor League camp should be paid Minor League allowances unless or until he begins to participate in Major League camp as contemplated by his contract.”
Minor leaguers who are on 40-man rosters such as Ronny Mauricio of the Mets and Oswald Peraza of the Yankees are treated as major leaguers. Thus, they cannot go to minor league camp. So if the lockout, for example, extends into April, the minor league season would begin without them, further disrupting the development of hundreds of players; many the closest to major league-ready prospects. It also will substantially alter what were the anticipated rosters for minor league teams, notably at the Double- and Triple-A levels.