NEW YORK — MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, say what you will about him, understands labor negotiations. Labor relations, less so — a fact that’s so hard to deny, he doesn’t even bother trying. But the part where you extract as much and surrender as little as possible through ruthlessness and savvy? Well, we wouldn’t have been in this mess if he was worse at it.
And so when he offers insights into the inner workings, they’re worth taking seriously.
After the latest, and longest in a long time, round of MLB labor negotiations wrapped up Thursday night with a new labor contract, Manfred had this to say: “The way the process of collective bargaining is designed, it’s really driven by time and economic leverage.