According to multiple outlets, Major League Baseball’s economic proposal to the Players Association was met with harsh criticism following their virtual meeting on Tuesday afternoon.
Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that the MLBPA is “very disappointed” at the additional “massive cuts” proposed by MLB.
Following league operations being put on hiatus following the national outbreak of COVID-19 in early March, an agreement between the league and the union had players due to receive their full per-game salaries in a shortened season.
Since then, a 50-50 revenue split has been proposed by MLB, to which the MLBPA rejected, accusing the league of attempting to impose a revenue-based salary cap.
Earlier Tuesday, Joel Sherman of the New York Post noted a “sliding-scale” facet attached to the league’s most recent proposal, presumably offering some level of protection to players making under a certain threshold.
Per Sherman’s report:
“One person who had been briefed on the proposal said the expectation is that players due to make $1 million or less in 2020 would be made close to whole on a prorated basis for games played.”
Jeff Passan of ESPN confirmed these reports, adding that the extent of the cuts for higher-paid players is unknown, and acknowledged “the possibility of all players having to take a reduction [in pay] is part of the league’s proposal.”
According to Jesse Rogers of ESPN, the proposal would result in players seeing less than half their pay for the season. For example, a player making $35 million in 2020 would be expected to make $7.8 million, players who make $10 million would see $2.9 million, and players making $1 million would see just $434,000.
In the face of a hopeful – albeit, significantly shortened – 2020 season, the news of such disconnect between the league and the players is disconcerting. With just weeks to prepare for a tentative early-July Opening Day, common ground must be found quickly.
We’ll keep you posted with more information as it becomes available.
