MLBPA reportedly didn't get close to filing grievance with MLB over A's in Sacramento

Jason Burke | Oct 26, 2024

Jun 21, 2017; Kansas City, MO, USA; Major League Baseball Player Association executive director Tony Clark speaks during a presentation at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images / Denny Medley-Imagn Images

Earlier this week it was announced that the A's would be playing on grass, not turf as expected, in Sacramento. The reason that this was under consideration in the first place is because the A's will be sharing the Sutter Health Park with the Sacramento River Cats, the San Francisco Giants Triple-A affiliate. There is concern that a grass field wouldn't hold up while hosting 150+ games per season for at least the next three years, so turf had been planned to help the field hold up against the rigors of two full seasons.

Turns out, the worry about the heat of the playing surface outweighed the concern over the field condition in the long run. Head of the MLBPA, Tony Clark, told The Athletic, "Grass brings a different level of challenge."

In that same Athletic article from Evan Drellich, he and Clark discuss the process of how the A's came to be playing on grass in 2025, and how the MLBPA doesn't really have a say in where the A's, or the Tampa Bay Rays, will play. "We have a hand in what’s called effects bargaining: How are players affected by the league’s decision?"

Clark sees filing a grievance as a last resort to get the league to listen to their concerns, in this case about the heat of the playing surface, but that in these negotiations, they did not reach the point where they considered filing that grievance. Instead, they focused on having professional conversations in the hopes of reaching common ground.

"Took a little while to get there, but we got there, and now we’re in a world where we’ll make the best of the situation where that grass will take a lot of beating during the course of the year, and we’ll adjust accordingly."

Obviously how beat up the grass gets over the course of the season is less of a concern than player safety, but it will certainly be interesting to see what the A's and MLB do to help keep that field in playing condition over the course of the entire season. Will teams like the Chicago Cubs that come in and visit the A's in Sacramento early in the season have an advantage since they'll be seeing the field at its peak?

Similarly, will teams that come and visit later in the year like the Red Sox, Reds, Astros and Royals, who visit in September, be at a disadvantage? One bad bounce on a minor league field determining whether one of those teams is in the postseason would be hard to come back from. Each of those teams could be in contention come 2025, and none of them will be running away with a postseason spot, so each and every game is going to matter.

Visiting Sacramento later in the season could be a big disadvantage, but that will be a problem that will be addressed if it comes up. For now, they're making the best of the hand they've been dealt.