Owners mull shorter season with prorated player salaries
With time ticking toward the unofficial deadline for the start of regular-season play, Major League Baseball and its players association are narrowing their divide but are still not near a mutual decision.
One day after the union presented a plan for a 114-game season with full prorated salaries and the possibility of deferrals, ESPN reported the league is considering offering prorated salaries over the course of a much shorter season. The report said owners have mulled a 50-game schedule as a last resort but that their next offer won’t include anything that abbreviated.
Last week, MLB offered a plan calling for approximately 80 games but asked players to take pay cuts beyond the prorated salaries they’d agreed to in March. The gap in games is an obvious point of further negotiation. On a positive note, each side has shifted from previously unmovable positions — the league acknowledged paying players prorated salaries, and the union offered deferrals — perhaps offering a pathway to meet somewhere in the middle.
Players are not open to discussing another pay cut after agreeing to prorated salaries in March. In that same agreement, according to ESPN, commissioner Rob Manfred was afforded leeway to mandate a shorter season in the absence of a deal with the MLBPA.
Players want to play as many games as possible, both for financial and competitive reasons, and their Sunday offer took the regular season through October. A legitimate question: How many games are needed to produce a truly representative champion?
Although the players agreed to prorated sala
ries in March, owners have since contended they must accept a second reduction in pay to mitigate lost revenues stemming from playing inside empty stadiums. Last week, the league made a proposal with a sliding pay scale that sought a larger salary reduction for the sport’s highest-paid players.
The union panned the plan. Washington Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer, a union subcommittee member, tweeted there was “no justification to accept a second pay cut.” Five days later, on Sunday night, the players association presented its counteroffer.
In its 114-game proposal to the league Sunday, the Players Association gave any player the right to opt out of the 2020 season entirely if he had COVID-19 concerns. Those players labeled “high risk” — or those who live with someone in that category — would still be paid. Others would receive only service time.
The union also stuck to the prorated salaries the sides agreed on in March, but the MLBPA’s proposal did include the possibility of salary deferrals if the 2020 postseason were canceled. Players who make $10 million or more prior to proration would see their salaries deferred if the playoffs are canceled — a total of $100 million in deferred money. Players also would receive a $100 million advance upon reporting to a second spring training.
Players endorsed an expanded 14-team playoff format for 2020 and 2021 in their proposal. The league planned that in any version of a 2020 season.
Manfred said last month he hoped to start regularseason play in early July. Adhering to that timeline will require consummating a deal quickly — perhaps this week. Teams require at least three weeks of a spring training-style buildup, meaning they’d need to begin gathering next week for a July target.