MARK FLIPS ON OWNERS
Ex-Yankee changes course, sides with the players in money battle with MLB
TAMPA — After taking the owners’ side earlier this month and telling the player to take “pennies on the dollar” and “give hope” by playing, former Yankee
Mark Teixeira did a 180 Thursday and went to bat for the union.
Teixeira, an ESPN analyst, said the owners should open their accounting books if they want to reach a deal to get a coronavirus-shortened season done.
“I’m not gonna trust you when you just tell me ‘This is what we’re making,’” Teixeira said on ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight” podcast. “Open your books. It’s not that hard to figure out what the revenues are gonna be. The TV contracts are set. We pretty much understand what each game means from a playoff standpoint and the revenue that’s created, but if there are no fans in the stands, you just take that line item out of the revenues budget.” Teixeira is expressing a long-held frustration of the players. All but one MLB team, the Braves, are privately held corporations and do not have to make their finances public. Union sub executive committee member Max Scherzer demanded the same thing Wednesday night.
“After discussing the latest
developments with the rest of the players, there’s no reason to engage with MLB in any further compensation reductions,” Scherzer wrote in a statement on Twitter. “We have previously negotiated a pay cut in the version of prorated salaries, and there’s no justification to accept a 2nd pay cut, based on the current information the union has received. I’m glad to hear other players voicing that same viewpoint and believe MLB’s economic strategy would completely change if all documentation were to become public.”
Both Teixeira and Scherzer were responding to the owners financial proposal to start the 2020 season after an 11week shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
With over 100,000 Americans dead due to the virus and no vaccine yet, the teams propose playing games without fans. Owners claim they could lose over $640,000 a game without ticket, parking and concession revenue.
The players had already agreed in March to have their 2020 salaries prorated based on games played and received a $170 million advance on that salary to share among the players. With an 82-game season proposed that agreement would amount to a 50% pay cut.
The owners, however, claim the reality of playing without fans demands further concessions from the players. Tuesday, they proposed a sliding scale on which to pay players their already prorated salaries. The highest paid players, like Scherzer, would receive the lowest percentage. The youngest and cheapest players would receive the highest percentage.
“What I see, this sliding pay scale deal is basically the owners saying, ‘I’m gonna pit the young players against the veterans and I’m gonna bet that the young players want to play,’” Teixeira said. “’And I’m gonna bet the veterans are gonna say no way this is ridiculous and I’m gonna let you fight amongst each other ’til you come back to the table.’’ ’
“I would hate for owners to use this opportunity to break the union,’’ Teixeira said. “This is our lives.”
Yet Teixeira was clearly on the other side when the players balked to a leaked 50-50 revenue sharing plan, which never came to fruition.
“This is unprecedented in the history of the Major League Baseball Players Association,” Teixeira said on ESPN’s “Get Up” earlier this month. . “And every other year, I would stand together and say, ‘The owners aren’t going to do this to us and we’re going to get paid our full fare. If I’m going to put myself out there, I’m going to get paid a full day’s wage.’
“The problem is you have people all over the world taking paycuts, losing their jobs, losing their lives. Front-line workers putting their lives at risk. These are unprecedented times, and this is the one time I would advocate for the players accepting a deal like this. A 50-50 split of revenues is not that crazy.
“If I’m a player, I don’t like it, but I’m going to do whatever I have to do to play and that means taking this deal.”
Teixeira was criticized by players for his comments. Dodgers pitcher Alex Wood called the statement “just so stupid” on Twitter.
So far, with Scherzer taking the lead, the players have remained unified. They are expected to make a counter offer soon.
Teixeira is now hopeful that there will be a settlement.
“I think, eventually, players and owners will understand there are ways to move forward,’’ he said. “And as bad as it looks today, I am cautiously optimistic for some agreement in the next few weeks.”