On Tuesday, the MLB approached the Players Union with an economic proposal for the 2020 season. Needless to say, the players were less than thrilled with it. The reaction wasn’t totally unexpected, but disappointing nonetheless.
While the players wanted prorated salaries, the owners vied for a 50-50 revenue split. So, the MLB had to try and find a middle-ground. That middle-ground proposal would lead to enormous pay cuts for the best players and turning away interest.
According to Jon Heyman, the proposal would have someone usually earning $563,500 make $262,217. A player usually making $35 million would make just 7,843,363. While those numbers still sound high, just remember that the players already agreed to prorated salaries, but the owners just recently got cold feet about it.
The pay system is a good start, however. We see that exponential curve, making it so players on minimum contracts aren’t hurt nearly as much. Regardless, what they would make would still be livable.
The good news is that all sides are still wanting to get a deal in place and see baseball. The goal is to have an agreement in place by June 1st to start Spring Training on June 10th. It would be great to see some Major League action; however, it’s unlikely that the Minor League plays at all.
On Tuesday, the Oakland Athletics became the first team to announce that they will no longer pay their Minor Leaguers after May 31st. That leads us to think that teams may have inside knowledge of no Minor League season, and we could see more announcements in that front soon.
The MLB and Players Association will continue negotiations and counter-proposals throughout the week to attempt to make a season happen.