As the clock keeps ticking, Major League Baseball is no closer to a cohesive strategy or plan to begin the National Pastime.
The battle has been reportedly contentious on both sides with the owners and players association lobbying offers and counter offers at each other like molotov cocktails.
But late on Thursday night, one of the game’s biggest stars Max Scherzer, drew the proverbial red line in the sand on behalf of the players’ association, and much like E.F. Hutton before him, when Max Scherzer talks, people listen.
“After discussing the latest developments with the rest of the players there’s no reason to engage with MLB in any further compensation reductions. We have previously negotiated a pay cut in the version of prorated salaries, and there’s no justification to accept a second pay cut based upon the current information the union has received. I’m glad to hear other players voicing the same viewpoint and believe MLB’s economic strategy would completely change if all documentation were to become public information.”
In short, Scherzer is telling the owners to open up their books – something ownership has been resisting for the better part of a century. In essence, the players have flatly rejected the latest proposal from owners which wanted to impose drastic pay cuts based on this sliding scale that made little to no sense to anyone. This proposal would have paid Mike Trout $6 million instead of his $19 million salary.
Back on March 26, owners had agreed to a prorated salary system with the understanding terms could change if games were held without fans.
However, the owners never passed this by the players association which only created a level of mistrust before any real negotiations could begin. Or what is commonly referred to as the typical ownership playbook.
It’s not clear where things progress from here, but according to a report by The Athletic, the union might have an ace up their sleeve and could suggest a season longer than the 82 games proposed by MLB as a bargaining chip.
Under that plan the players would hope to get the prorated salaries they have been seeking all along, but with some of the money deferred with interest. The players’ proposal would extend the season to 110 games instead of 82.
While both sides battle things out, I’m wondering what this is doing to the fan enthusiasm, as I’m noticing a lot of tension with some fans just giving up on a 2020 season altogether. However, that’s mostly a minority point of view and many of the fans I speak to do want to see baseball played in some format this summer.
