Rob Manfred Players Quotations

We are disappointed obviously that the union decided today to set a strike date. Our hope had been that we could get an agreement with the players without the players taking this step that causes such concern to so many of our fans. Our disappointment is magnified by the fact that as a result of compromises by both sides we made substantial progress towards a new agreement over the past weeks. A number of important issues have been resolved and we are close on many others.

We've worked very hard on our relationship with the players association. The economics of the sport are strong and the current agreement has worked very well. Those three things are good reason to be optimistic we can get a new agreement without a dispute.