Texas Rangers cut some salaries in response to lost revenue amid coronavirus shutdown
The coronavirus pandemic that has shut down the 2020 MLB season will be hitting many Texas Rangers’ employees in the pocket book later this month.
Owner Ray Davis told full-time employees on the baseball and business sides that half of them will be seeing salary reductions of 10 to 20 percent indefinitely. The move, according a source, is to stave off furloughs and layoffs as long as possible.
Full-time employees on the lower end of the salary scale will not be affected.
The executive staff took pay cuts beginning April 1. The first paycheck that will reflect salary cuts to full-time employees comes May 29.
Players are not affected by the cuts. MLB and the MLB Players Association agreed in late March on a payment structure for players, who have uniform player contracts, through May 31.
The Rangers last month told baseball-operations employees who work on uniform employee contracts that they will continue receiving paychecks through May, and that remains ownership’s goal.
However, a source acknowledged that more measures might become necessary the longer the baseball season is on hold. The Rangers were expecting a windfall this season with increased attendance at the new $1.2 billion Globe Life Field.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has said he is optimistic baseball will be played in 2020, and the league is exploring multiple concepts for conducting a shortened season that will begin without fans.
The most recently reported plan would call for up to 110 games to be played with a start date in late June or early July. The 30 MLB teams would be split into three 10-team divisions, with the Rangers falling into the western division with Houston, Colorado, Arizona, Seattle and the five California teams.
Teams would play home games in their ballparks.
