An Offer That Was Engineered to Be Rejected

Commissioner Rob Manfred boasted of his streak of successful labor negotiations, but by effectively creating a salary cap he had to know this deal would fail.

Rob Manfred hailed himself last month as a master negotiator, boasting of his flawless record in collective bargaining: four labor deals and no missed games since his hiring by Major League Baseball in 1998. If anyone had a problem with him now, Manfred strongly suggested, it was on them.

He still believes it. On Tuesday in Jupiter, Fla., Manfred, M.L.B.’s commissioner, announced that he had canceled the first two series of the regular season, a casualty of the lockout he started three months ago. Manfred insisted last month that canceling games would be a “disastrous outcome” for the sport, yet he will not own that disaster — or express any regret over failing to earn the trust of players as grievances built and tensions simmered.

“Look, what I would say is we did take a stab at some early negotiations throughout the five-year period,” Manfred said. “There was a lot of rhetoric about dissatisfaction with a deal that they made. A lot of the rhetoric was negative with respect to clubs, the commissioner’s office, me. That environment someone else created. And it’s an environment in which it’s tough to build bridges.”