Former New York Yankees’ star believes players should accept owners’ offer

MLB owners have already submitted a proposal to the players’ union for professional baseball to return around July 4th. The season would have 82 games and a 50/50 revenue split between owners and the MLBPA. Yes, there are several hurdles to clear when it comes to the spread of the coronavirus, but if the union agrees, there could be baseball soon. Will they? According to former New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira, they should.

Back in March, both parties agreed to pay players $170 million regardless of the season status or fate. If action resumes, the players would get a prorated sum of their contract based on games played, per USA Today.

Per the renewed offer, players would split revenue in a 50-50 ratio. Without fans in the stands, revenue is expected to be drastically reduced. The leader of the union Tony Clark sees it as a salary cap and has no interest in signing off.

Via The Athletic: “That the league is trying to take advantage of a global health crisis to get what they’ve failed to achieve in the past — and to anonymously negotiate through the media for the last several days — suggests they know exactly how this will be received. None of this is beneficial to the process of finding a way for us to safely get back on the field and resume the 2020 season — which continues to be our sole focus.”

The Yankees’ former star sees the offer as “reasonable”

Teixeira, a mainstay in the New York Yankees’ lineup for years until he retired in 2016, thinks that what the owners are offering is “reasonable,” and players should be on board.

“These are unprecedented times and the owner’s 50/50 split is not unreasonable…I think players need to understand just this one time, one time in the history of the union…They can bend a little bit.”

“From a player’s standpoint, I want 100 percent of my salary for every game played – but unfortunately, these are unprecedented times. And the owners’ 50/50 split is not unreasonable. If you really think about where the finances of baseball have gone, the players are actually getting less than 50 percent of the revenue from the sport in a regular season. If we didn’t have a pandemic this year and played 162 games, the players would have actually gotten less than 50 percent. So the owners, themselves, they’re making the best offer they can make, and I think it’s a very reasonable offer.

“I think players need to understand, just this one time – one time in the history of the union, since Curt Flood, they can bend a little bit and say ‘you know what, we’re going to do what’s best for the sport, what’s best for the country. There’s people out there that are risking their lives on the front lines. There are people that are losing their jobs, losing their savings. And we know this might not be a great deal for us, but it’s better than sitting at home and not playing baseball at all.’”

Only time will tell if we get to see the New York Yankees back in action this season. But one thing seems true: Teixeira, a former star, appears to understand the owners’ side this time around.