Phillies: Players ready for season, ask ‘when and where?’

The Phillies are ready for a 2020 season and are asking ‘when and where?’

Players throughout Major League Baseball, including those of the Philadelphia Phillies, are ready for a 2020 season.

MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark expressed their collective sentiment with a released statement on Monday, which states that the players are “disgusted” after Commissioner Rob Manfred guaranteed a 2020 season, but later “decided to go back on his word and is now threatening to cancel the entire season.”

“Any implication that the Players Association has somehow delayed progress on health and safety protocols is completely false, as Rob has recently acknowledged the parties are ‘very, very close,'” Clark continues. “This latest threat is just one more indication that Major League Baseball has been negotiating in bad faith since the beginning.”

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“This has always been about extracting additional pay cuts from Players and this is just another day and another bad faith tactic in their ongoing campaign.”

To complement Clark’s powerful statement directed to the commissioner and the 30 owners in which he represents, players are taking to social media to simply state “tell us where and when.”

In essence, they are not only stating they are longing to once again play the game they love, but they are not intentionally holding back nor hindering the negotiation process. They are ready for MLB to schedule the season.

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Several Phillies have recently expressed this phrase, including sluggers Bryce Harper and Rhys Hoskins, as well as starting pitcher Nick Pivetta and southpaw prospect JoJo Romero.

Of the four, Romero was the first to express his feelings, while also taking a jab at Manfred and his “100 percent” comments of guaranteeing a season: “I’m 100% ready to play that’s a FACT #WhenandWhere”

Hoskins and Pivetta used the “tell us when and where” phrase in their message, with the Phillies first baseman also adding: “We’re ready! We’ve been ready! #LetTheKidsPlay”

Harper’s post received the most engagement, with him notably sharing this thoughts while quote tweeting Millville, New Jersey, native Mike Trout:

One week from Friday will mark three months of what should have been the 2020 season, had the pandemic never existed and Opening Day began on March 26 as scheduled.

Of course, that is not the reality. Current events regarding negotiations between MLB and MLBPA are serious, especially with the collective bargaining agreement set to expire after 2021.