The current coronavirus outbreak has forced MLB to suspend the season indefinitely, and despite recent efforts of getting it back on track with plans to have the players isolated in one city, they still haven’t materialized as we speak. The New York Yankees and New York Mets, two of the largest market clubs in the country, likely won’t play at home this year given that the Big Apple is the city most affected by the virus.
The current break affects players, no doubt, but what very few people realize is that other employees and staffers are also in limbo. Game day staff, maintenance workers in the stadium, merchandise vendors, and many more people don’t know when their next check will come.
However, some teams are taking matters into their own hands. According to a Jeff Passan (ESPN) report, 20 out of the 30 MLB teams intend to pay baseball operations employees through at least May 31 amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The Los Angeles Angels are the most recent team to announce the intention of doing so, and thankfully, the list is expected to grow in the next few days.
Mets and Yankees not on the list as of now
However, it is somewhat surprising that big-market clubs such as the New York Yankees and the New York Mets, not to mention the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals, haven’t announced that they will pay baseball operations employees through May.
Rob Manfred, the MLB Commissioner, is suspending the Uniform Employee Contracts on May 1, a situation that allows teams to issue pay cuts or furlough employees. However, it appears most teams are trying to get by as long as they can for now.
For what is worth, both the Mets and the Yankees have announced disaster assistance funds to contribute staffers. It remains to be seen if they agree to pay baseball operations employees through May, or any date further along the road.
Rotoworld writes that Manfred told a large group of MLB staffers on Monday that he fully anticipates baseball will be played this season, though he cautioned that it’s “very difficult to predict with any accuracy” any sort of timeline.