Compensation is key when taking risk: players
As the possibility of a season start date increases, Major League Baseball Players Association board members Chris Iannetta and Andrew Miller are concerned about pay and health.
Iannetta, a catcher with the New York Yankees, and Miller, a reliever with the St. Louis Cardinals, feel there is a lot of risk on the players’ end to play games without fans in the stands. That is especially true with the coronavirus outbreak not under control and still a major threat.
And in their eyes, baseball players should be fairly compensated and not have to take a salary hit simply because the owners might sustain revenue losses in the millions.
“The way our sport works is we are not tied to revenue in any way,” Miller told ESPN. “If the owners hit a home run and make more money, we don’t go back and ask for more on our end. Ultimately this isn’t about money. We need to find a way to safely get our players on the field in a safe manner and control that. I would hope (finances) doesn’t turn into anything regarding that stuff.”
Iannetta said not only are players risking their health but so are umpires, groundskeepers and any other support staff on site.
“It goes back to not having fans in the stands,” Iannetta told ESPN. “If there’s no fans in the stands, there is an intrinsic risk that players are going to undertake. There is an intrinsic risk that support staff and coaches are going to undertake, and we should get fairly compensated for taking that risk for the betterment of the game and the betterment of the owners who stand to make a huge profit off the game.”