Taillon sees path where ‘we all win’
Sides could learn from recent talks
Jameson Taillon believes what baseball just went through could serve as a preview of what’s to come after the existing collective bargaining agreement expires in October 2021.
To that end, the Pirates’ team representative for the Major League Baseball Players Association also hopes the league and its players can learn and grow from this process, as clunky and frustrating as it was for everyone involved.
“Hopefully, both sides have learned something, and we can put that in the past and come together instead of making it one against the other and one side has to win,” Taillon said Wednesday on a Zoom call with local reporters. “Hopefully, we can find a way that
we all win because I think that’s what’s best for everybody.”
Baseball did itself no favors by coming off as greedy and tone deaf while trying to negotiate restart terms amid a global pandemic. Technically, too, it never even happened; Commissioner Rob Manfred actually had to implement a 60-game season before the two sides found common ground on health and safety protocols.
Taillon said there will be a significant onus on the players to repair some of the damage, whether that’s by increased interaction with fans on social media or just being more visible in the community, perhaps with charity work.
This part of the equation will only be made tougher with no fans in the stands.
“It’s a good opportunity for us as a league to get more involved in social media, marketing our players and connecting with our fans,” Taillon said. “It’s as important now as ever to connect on social media, to connect with the younger generation.”
One good thing Taillon observed throughout the process was the unification of players. Never, Taillon feels, have they been more close-knit.
For example, Taillon felt, players who got upset over the past couple of months did an excellent job of channeling that anger into learning more about the MLBPA
“It wasn’t very easy to be a part of, to see our game get slandered on social media so much and to see the bad press that it brought and the sour taste that it left our fans. I hope that’s enough to wake both sides up.”
and applying their energy toward fixing the problem. That unity was especially valuable, he said, when it came to the players presenting a united front in negotiations.
“We definitely viewed some of the pay-cut strategy and some of the sliding-scale stuff as an attempt at kind of dividing guys,” Taillon said. “I’m proud of everyone sticking together.”
Moving forward, Taillon feels like the players can be more open-minded. Too often during this most recent process, they fixated on a single issue while leaving another by the wayside. Prorated pay would likely fall into that category.
On the other side, Taillon said he’d like to see fewer leaks and have talks stay behind closed doors.
“I’d like to see a little less of the leaking, a little less of the fear tactics and negotiating through social media,” Taillon said. “I could go on and on. It wasn’t a very fluid process.”
It’s been tough to watch for everybody involved, Taillon included. A couple times on Twitter, Taillon couldn’t help himself and interacted with a national writer,
— Jameson Taillon
defending the players’ side.
Taillon is acutely aware of the damage baseball did to itself, which is why he doesn’t want to see it happen again in 2021.
“It wasn’t very easy to be a part of, to see our game get slandered on social media so much and to see the bad press that it brought and the sour taste that it left our fans,” Taillon said. “I hope that’s enough to wake both sides up.”
One issue the owners could revisit involves expanding the playoffs from 10 to 16 teams. It would make everyone more money, give fans something to watch and increase exposure/brandbuilding for players.
“It seemed like [the owners] did want expanded playoffs, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they came back and tried to find a way to get them,” Taillon said. “I think a lot of fans and players would stand by me with this, but I kind of just hope the negotiations for now are done and we can get back on the field as easily and safely as possible and just move forward.”