In light of Major League Baseball’s economic proposal presented Tuesday afternoon to the Players Association, pay cuts for players is a topic weighing heavily on everyone’s mind as they await the start of a shortened season. After the COVID-19 outbreak in early March put a stop to baseball, players were due to receive their full per-game salaries in a shortened season in an agreement between the MLB and the MLBPA.

According to reports from Jesse Rogers and Jeff Passan, both of ESPN, the league’s latest proposal would leave baseball’s highest-paid players to see pay cuts of more than 60%. Players who make $35 million would be expected to cash in at $7.84 million with the proposal. While lower-paid players would take lesser cuts from the full prorated shares, the disparity in pay is presenting a major issue for players and the union.

If players were to receive an 82-game prorated salary, this would amount to almost twice the proposed salary option for higher paid players. With 65% of all MLB players making less than $1 million, the goal was to protect the lowest-paid players and allow them to have lesser cuts on prorated shares. In this case, a player who makes the MLB-minimum of $563,500 would earn $262,000 in the 2020 season, whereas a player at $17.7 million for his prorated shares would make $7.84 million.

With this being the first proposal from the league, there are likely to be many conversations and adjustments, especially keeping in mind the disappointment among players after seeing the drastic pay cuts. All players would be expected to face a pay cut, which is making it that much more difficult to get the season going.

With the risks of the coronavirus looming, and especially putting players at an increased risk of contracting the virus when playing, the union and players are unlikely to take this as an end-all-be-all deal.