#It’s decision time for Rob Manfred after MLBPA issues ultimatum

2020 Major League Baseball: Instead of trade deadlines, we get an ultimatum deadline.

MLB has until the close of business Monday, as per a “demand” made by the MLB Players Association, to inform the PA of its plans for the unilateral restart to this season, which was cut short by the coronavirus during spring training. Commissioner Rob Manfred could honor that demand by following through on his threat to implement a season in the tiny 50-game range; he could defy his counterparts and attempt to extend an olive branch in the hopes of collectively bargaining a solution; or he could blow the deadline and see how the PA reacts.

After weeks of fruitless, ugly negotiations between the players and owners, the PA announced Saturday night that it would not counter MLB’s latest proposal, which called for a 72-game season and guaranteed the players 70 percent of their prorated salaries. Instead, PA executive director Tony Clark declared, “It is time to get back to work. Tell us where and when.”

Bruce Meyer, the PA’s chief negotiator, wrote in a letter Saturday to deputy commissioner Dan Halem, “It is unfair to leave players and the fans hanging at this point, and further delay risks compromising health and safety. We demand that you inform us of your plans by close of business on Monday, June 15.” Hence the current timeline that could at least set in motion a season of underwhelming length, but a season nonetheless.

As per the terms of the March 26 agreement between the players and owners that covered both sides against a full cancellation of the schedule, Manfred has the right to call for a regular-season length of his determination as long as the players receive their full prorated pay. He would rather not go this route because it would open up the owners to a grievance from the players, who would contend that the owners didn’t make a good-faith effort to play as many games as possible — also a condition of that late March deal. Furthermore, the owners can get their expanded 2020 postseason, with as many as 16 clubs as opposed to the current 10, only with the players’ blessing. And the players, who have been hellbent on getting their prorated pay, are unlikely to bless so much as an owner’s sneeze in this current environment. In fact, a popular behind-the-scenes parlor game has been to wonder whether any high-profile players would sit out such a short campaign, sacrificing their pay in the name of not wanting to risk their health as COVID-19 continues to rage.

The two sides have feuded over the level of financial distress in which the owners truly find themselves, and the PA pounced on a story broken by The Post’s Andrew Marchand on Saturday that detailed a new, lucrative broadcast deal between MLB and TBS. Three owners — the Cardinals’ Bill DeWitt, the Diamondbacks’ Ken Kendrick and the Cubs’ Tom Ricketts — have conducted recent interviews in which they claimed they didn’t make much money running baseball teams. Those interviews appeared to accomplish little besides further galvanizing the players and alienating fans. Further muddying up a situation, in other words, that already was pretty muddy. On Monday, it could very well turn even muddier.