Tuesday marked the day of another step forward in the realization of an abbreviated 2020 Major League Baseball season.
Seemingly, financial compensation is the only thing holding up the actualization of when players will eventually take the field.
Last week, several governors of the country’s largest states showed willingness to host professional sports within their municipalities, as most states are finally backing off on stay at home requirements. A 67-page health and safety plan drafted by the MLB has still yet to be approved by the players union, although many pundits feel it is not much more than a formality.
On Tuesday, the owners approved a proposal that will be sent to the union for consideration, according to reports. Although the original intent of the owners was to put a 50/50 revenue sharing plan in place—which was indirectly rejected by the union several weeks ago—the owners now are believed to have asked the players to sign off on a “sliding scale of compensation” that would trim the salaries of the players.
Apparently, the players who make the most money will be the most affected.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today Sports was among the first to share the news of the proposal. Jon Heyman of MLB Network indicated not long after that representatives from the owners and the union were set to meet later on Tuesday to discuss the new plan.
Nightengale evidently based his report on information from three people with knowledge of the proposal who preferred to remain anonymous.
Per Nightengale’s report, “the proposal includes a sliding scale of compensation, guaranteeing players a percentage of their salary during different intervals of the season, while also including a larger share of postseason money. The players earning the highest salaries would be taking the biggest cuts, while those earning the least amount of money would receive most of their guaranteed salaries, with the union determining the exact percentage splits.”
If both sides agree on this new proposal, the deal would result in the players taking an additional pay cut based on no fans in attendance for an 82-game season, after already agreeing to be paid on a pro-rated basis that reduces their pay by almost 50%.
It is widely believed that an agreement will eventually happen, but it is speculated that there will indeed be some type of pushback from the union, creating the need for further negotiations.
Nightengale stated that while there’s no “hard deadline” for the negotiations to be resolved, the two sides would likely need to reach an agreement within the next week or so if the season can begin during the first week of July.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
Sounds kind of iffy to me. But I think a lot of the players are itching to get going. Dodgers opened their training facility to injured players.
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Gotta believe some deal gets done. It would be a huge black eye for both players and owners if the season gets cancelled just based on finances!
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Reactions to the proposal thus far are not good. Players making the most are going to lose the most. I think all sides need to compromise much more if there is going to be a season, and these two entities have not shown that ability in the past. It to me does not look good at all.
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I’ll be interested to see how this plays out. If no agreement can be reached then each of the two sides will try to make sure the other side is the last one to say “no”. Because whichever side says “no” last will get most of the blame if there is no season. So far the owners have put themselves in the position of being the ones to make the proposals and the players keep saying “no”. Smart negotiating on their part.
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The reactions are pretty much universally bad. Placing the players may be smart negotiating, but, when the next CBA comes around, the players are going to remember this and play a little hardball them selves.
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At this point this is not looking good at all. Playing with no fans is not going to generate income, and the teams are going to be laying out cash a lot of them do not have. I am not optimistic at this point that baseball will be played at all this year.
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Well … I believe there will be an agreement reached, and there will be baseball this year. The players will need to compromise on the money, because the owners are going to lose money no matter what. I’m sure there will be much posturing, but the game and the country needs this to be done. Most people believe that pro sports contracts are way out of control, and likely won’t have much sympathy for the players.
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Players preparing a counter proposal. We will see how this plays out
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I’m with you bear. Most teams just cant afford anything but gate sharing, and I’m pretty sure the wealthy teams won’t be sharing their tv revenues with them. I reluctantly gave up on thus season long ago and have seen anything to change my mind. On the other hand I’m usually wrong and they will sign an agreement tonight.
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Players getting ready to submit a counter proposal which seems to be more games, prorated salary’s, which seems to be something they will not back down from, and a few other things related to health. Now we wait and see who blinks first.
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Scott Boras adding his 2 vents again. Urging players not to cave. While the cash cow sits on the sidelines and hopes for a solution. The losers in all this drama, we the fans. We are starved for baseball.
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Since I’m always looking to argue with you Bear, I’m going to say that the real losers in this drama are the minor leaguers who, in a number of cases, will not be paid much longer and even when they were it was at a ridiculously low rate. We may be bored and sad with no baseball but those poor guys are in far worse shape than we are.
Don’t know if you saw that David Price (the new guy who has never played a league game for us) is going to pay every Dodger minor leaguer not on the 40-man roster $1000 out of his own pocket for the month of June. Bravo David! That’s putting your money where your mouth is. In the meanwhile teams are cutting minor leaguers like there was no tomorrow. Cubs released old friend Brock Stewart yesterday.
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I do agree those kids are getting the old shaftaroo. And in some cases they are the future of the game. But very few a list players bit the dirt. And those guys do not foot the bill for the game, it is the fans. And I like arguing with you because you always lose!!! LOL…
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Well, I guess I lose those arguments if the rule says that one of the participants is also the judge. 🙂
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Just pulling your chain Jefe….U R toooooo easy my friend….LOLL
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If I’m gonna hand it out, I gotta be able to take it.
I can handle it Bear. Keep pullin’. I know it’s all in good fun.
By the way, I think I should warn you, the Shlemmings are storming your building at dawn tomorrow. After we tear the place apart, I hope you’ll provide us with coffee and donuts.
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You don’t have the code to the door..and we old geezers are heavily armed…and who fears a Schlemming anyway??? Keep pokin the bear…..it can be a dangerous business.
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Oh yeah, I saw where Price did that, Kudos….and Stewart was never anything but a gap filler. He had plenty of shots to make the team and do something significant, and he did not.
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It’s true, Stewart didn’t ever produce for the Dodgers but it’s my feeling that they really screwed up his career the year they sent him up and down a hundred times and kept switching him from starter to reliever. That said, nobody ever said baseball was fair.
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It hasn’t hurt Stripling…that being said, Stripling had more chops to begin with…
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I wasn’t so much referring to the switching between starting and relieving. Lots of guys go through that.
But from July 2016 through the end of 2018 Stewart was called up 15 times and optioned out again 16 times. That’s just ridiculous. He spent more time in airplanes than on a baseball field.
Stripling on the other hand, after being promoted in 2016 I think only had one trip back to the minors where he pitched about 3 innings and was then called up again.
And yes, I agree that Strip is the more talented of the two.
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Hey I liked Stewart for all of one game. He hit a double that drove in a run as I remember, other than that he was about as inspiring as a Rob Dibble rant.
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This should be so easy to solve so we can have baseball. Cut the season in half and have an 81 game season ending in October instead of September with the playoffs being done by Thanksgiving. The schedule would eliminate all inter-league games and have a DH for both leagues. Each team would play its normal amount of division games but only play one series against teams not in their division which would limit travel for everyone. That gives players 2 1/2 months rest for the next season. As far as compensation they should meet in the middle. Owners want to pay half salaries and players want all of it so pay them 75% of their salary. The owners save a little and the players get paid for 3/4 of their salary while only playing 1/2 of the normal season. Unfortunately I don’t think we will have baseball this year because I don’t see the players coming off their demands to be paid in full. So we may lose Betts without ever seeing him play in LA.
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Once again no reply section for Andy’s article!
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