#Rob Manfred ‘not confident’ MLB 2020 season will happen

Commissioner Rob Manfred pronounced less than a week ago “100 percent” that “we’re playing Major League Baseball” in 2020.

Hold that thought.

Manfred held his weekly Monday conference call with the 30 owners and sources told The Post that MLB seriously is considering not playing at all this year if it cannot reach an agreement with the players association.

At this moment MLB is not planning on sending another proposal to the union after the players rejected the league’s last bid that could have netted the players as much as 83 percent of their prorated salaries if a postseason was concluded. The union has held firm that it will not play for less than full prorated pay. It said Saturday that it was done negotiating and Manfred should just tell the players where to show up and when.

The expectation was that if the impasse continued Manfred — as is his power from a March 26 agreement with the union — would implement a season of 48-54 games at full prorated pay. That was what gave him the confidence to say before last week’s draft, “We’re going to play baseball in 2020.”

However, on Monday in conjunction with a show with major sports league commissioners, Manfred told ESPN, “I had been hopeful that once we got to common ground on the idea that we were gonna pay the players full prorated salary, that we would get some cooperation in terms of proceeding under the agreement that we negotiated with the MLBPA on March 26th. Unfortunately, over the weekend, while Tony Clark was declaring his desire to get back to work, the union’s top lawyer was out telling reporters, players and eventually getting back to owners that as soon as we issued a schedule – as they requested – they intended to file a grievance claiming they were entitled to an additional billion dollars. Obviously, that sort of bad-faith tactic makes it extremely difficult to move forward in these circumstances.”

The litigation would take a while — perhaps years — to be settled. MLB, though, if it lost could be in position to owe billions of dollars in lost wages for games not played. Which is why suddenly Manfred was telling ESPN, “I’m not confident [in a season]. I think there’s real risk; and as long as there’s no dialogue, that real risk is gonna continue.”

The March 26 agreement allows the commissioner not to begin a season unless three conditions are satisfied: 1. There are no governmental restrictions on spectators attending games. 2. There are no relevant travel restrictions in the United States and Canada. 3. That after consultation with recognized medical experts and the union that there are no unreasonable risks to players, staff and spectators to stage games in the 30 home parks.

By those standards, Manfred does not have to start a season because none of the three have been met completely. And since this is a contractually agreed upon position, MLB could argue it does not have to play nor face grievances. As part of the March 26 agreement, players would have the $170 million of their 2020 pay that MLB advanced and full service time even if no games were played. But they would receive no further salary and would have a full season of their careers lost.

Is this MLB rhetoric? A negotiating ploy to try to gain leverage? A real policy position that now imperils playing any games this year?

The union has believed MLB’s entire strategy has been to play as few games as possible or none at all to limit player salaries. MLB has argued that it was working toward a July Fourth weekend start if it could reach an agreement with the union.