MLB players disappointed with offer
While the National Hockey League announced their return to play plan on Tuesday with a new 24-team playoff format and the NBA gets closer to finalizing a strategy as well, Major League Baseball seems further today from returning to play than it did when the league halted spring training back in March.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 MLB season has yet to commence and as a result there are a variety of questions surrounding what the league and format will look like when players can get back to action. Unfortunately, that day seems like it could be a long time from now.
On Tuesday, the MLB offered a proposal to the players’ union that would introduce a six-tier sliding scale system regarding players’ salaries. The structure would see the league’s highest-paid players sacrificing the most, while the players earning less would not see their salaries reduced as much.
According to the proposal, players would see the following cuts:
$563,501 to $1m paid at 72.5%
$1,000,001 to $5m paid at 50%
$5,000,001 to $10m paid at 40%
$10,000,001 to $20m paid at 30%
$20,000,001 and up paid at 20%
It appears as if the league is hoping to divide the players’ union with their offer, but the players have already made it clear they are sticking together and that the proposal was not going to work for them. They called the offer “extremely disappointing” before adding “the sides also remain far apart on health and safety protocols”.
While most fans just want to see games being played again, the league has stressed that the players need to be willing to sacrifice as a result of the pandemic. With fans unlikely to be allowed into stadiums and a shortened season planned, owners are expected to bring in significantly less revenue than they had originally planned for.
“We made a proposal to the union that is completely consistent with the economic realities facing our sport,” MLB said in a statement. “We look forward to a responsive proposal from the MLBPA.”
The league had already given the union a presentation on May 12th claiming that they had expected to lose billions of dollars in lost revenue. Owners suggested that if teams paid players prorated salaries in a 2020 season with no fans in ballparks, the clubs would combine to lose approximately $3.58bn in revenue before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
The players are not the only ones being asked to make sacrifices for the greater good of the league, with teams already making cuts to other departments. On Tuesday, ESPN reported that the Oakland Athletics will be introducing a system of furloughs and salary reductions for most of their baseball operations department. Both professional and amateur scouts are expected to be furloughed in the coming weeks with player-development also preparing to be furloughed.
“Baseball is more than a job — it is a way of life,” Athletics’ owner John Fisher wrote in a letter to fans and staff. “People who work for our team are our family — our very foundation — and they work tirelessly to help the A’s compete in this most precious game. COVID-19 has brought a tragic loss of life and sickness to so many in our community, and it has impacted us all in ways we could have never imagined. Our organization, like so many others across the country, has had to make tough and painful decisions.”
The 2020 season was originally scheduled to start on March 26th.
