PORT ST. LUCIE — Get ready for some hardball in MLB’s upcoming negotiations.
Mets player rep Michael Conforto said Wednesday at Clover Park the players are united, despite the general disgust with the Astros and their electronic sign-stealing saga. The Mets met with Tony Clark, executive director of the MLBPA, in Clark’s annual tour of the camps. This was the first stop on the union’s journey to every camp in Florida and Arizona to discuss the issues — everything from the Astros lack of integrity to free agency to the future of technology in the game.
“These meetings are always about being unified,” Conforto said. “There’s a fight coming in 2021 with the new [collective bargaining agreement], and that is something we need to be focused on. The goal is stay unified. I have no doubt the league will come together. Right now it’s tough with all the things going on. The players union is going to be very, very strong when that time comes.
“We were just kind of getting everybody up to speed,’’ Conforto said. “Our group was the first to meet.’’
Clark said, “This meeting was about the state of the game. Where does our game need to go? What type of game do we want to have.
“Technology and how it is being used. We can talk about the removal of live feeds. We look forward to the second part of the conversation, a dialogue about the integrity of the game as a whole, not just the technology. … Any conversation about player discipline has to be very specific with respect to what is a violation and what isn’t, and those are the types of conversations we have to continue to have with guys to make sure we appreciate where the group is in the details.’’
The group appears together in the fight, according to Conforto.