Critical week for MLB starts with players unhappy with owners’ initial financial plan
If Major League Baseball and its players are to start their 2020 season in early July, players must be in spring training 2.0 by June 10.
If players are going to be training again by June 10, the owners and the MLB Players Association must settle on safety protocols and how to divvy up the money.
Health measures for playing amid the coronavirus pandemic have been discussed in detail, and it appears amicably so but with gaps to be filled.
The big one, though, is compensation, which is on the table after the owners on Tuesday submitted their first proposal on how players would be paid if the season were to begin.
This week, or maybe the next 10 days, will be the key to unlocking an abbreviated season.
“I’m optimistic, personally,” Texas Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said last week. “There’s two major topics that need to be addressed sufficiently. The first is the healthy and safety of everyone involved, and I believe that one can be met.
“If that can be met, and I’m hopeful that it can, I would anticipate that everybody involved will work and figure out the second bucket, which is the finances.”
Instead of a revenue-sharing plan, which was floated two weeks ago and outright rejected by the union through the media, the owners reportedly submitted a sliding pay scale in which the highest-paid players would earn less.
The swap of proposals might indicate a possible realization by owners of the urgency to get something done to salvage a season, even if it is only 82 games.
If the season can reach the playoffs and the nearly $1 billion in TV revenue, the owners will be putting a nice-sized dent in their 2020 losses.
And, hey, isn’t some money is better than none at all?
The problem is that the union did not care for the owners’ proposal, according to reports. The cuts are “massive” on top of the cut the players already agreed to take.
ESPN reported that players making the league minimum would take a $300,000 cut. Those making $2 million would make $784,000, and those at the very top of the pay scale would take nearly and 80% pay cut.
That sounds bad, but the good news is that it’s a start.
The sides have a place to begin their negotiation, and at least the union didn’t reject the proposal as they did the idea of revenue sharing, which they believe is the first step to a salary cap.
It might be true that the union isn’t satisfied with the proposal, but that dissatisfaction is also posturing in what figures to be a week’s worth of an intense back-and-forth that needs to end with an agreement.
It’s worth mentioning again that baseball has an opportunity to regain popularity it never fully regained from the last major money squabble, the 1994 strike. With people continuing to shelter in place and work from home, they want to watch live competition as a diversion and as entertainment in a country bereft of sports.
But the clock is ticking, and this week could very well be the key to unlocking the season.
This story was originally published May 26, 2020 at 5:45 PM.
