ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Baseball management is more likely to consider expanded playoffs for 2012 than for next year.
After discussing upcoming collective bargaining Tuesday with major league general managers, Rob Manfred said adding wild-card teams for 2011 would be “a difficult trick to pull off” because it would have to be a modification of the current labor contract, which runs through the end of next season.
Manfred said the proposal would have to be made by the owners’ labor policy committee, then endorsed by owners and agreed to by the players’ association because “in the middle of a contract, we can’t act unilaterally.” Manfred said it would complicate bargaining to pull one issue out ahead of the others.
