Payment: up to 75 percent of per-game pay if postseason is played, 50 percent if notĪctual proposal: 35.2 percent of original 2020 salaries with postseason and 23.4 percent without postseason Season length: 76-game regular season, postseason expanded to 16 teams Season length: 114-game regular season, postseason expanded to 14 teams for two yearsĪctual proposal: 70.4 percent of original 2020 salariesĪfter a strong reaction from the MLBPA, MLB looked at its first official proposal and offered not much more, and even less if the postseason can’t be played. Standing firm on full prorated salaries, the players called for 114 games with full per-game pay between June and Oct. The MLBPA responded five days later with a plan that saw similar reception from the league. May 31: MLBPA proposes 114-game season with full per-game pay Payment: sliding scale salaries between 72.5 percent and 20 percent of per-game payĪctual proposal: 23.9 percent of original 2020 salaries, according to Beyond the Box Score’s calculations. Season length: 82-game regular season, postseason expanded to 14 teams Many saw the plan as an attempt to turn lower-paid players against their more well-paid colleagues, which did not appear to happen. For 82 games, players making the league minimum would receive 72.5 percent of their original salary on a per-game basis while players with salaries above $20 million would get 20 percent. The plan was built on a sliding-scale model in which higher-paid players saw a larger pay cut. May 26: MLB offers sliding scale salariesĪn actual offer came two-and-a-half months after the season shut down, and it took about two-and-a-half minutes for the players to start saying no. No formal proposal ever came out of MLB’s revenue-sharing plan. Teams have long cried poor and insisted that they aren’t as profitable as people say, but have always been loath to present any real evidence of that fact. Simply put, the MLBPA didn’t trust MLB to give it its full share of the pie, so it requested the league open up its books if it wanted a revenue-sharing plan. However, that plan included a revenue-sharing proposal that leaked in the media before it was ever officially proposed, and predictably turned out to be a non-starter for the players. May 11: MLB owners approve revenue-sharing planĪfter two months of hiatus, MLB appeared to take its first step toward reviving the season when owners approved a plan for an 82-game season that would begin around July 4. What if we threw Texas in there? None of this went anywhere, and both the league and the union later agreed that any season would be held in each team’s home stadium with no fans in attendance. There were some test balloons floated about playing the season in an isolated area like the NBA is about to do with Disney World, but nothing that was really taken seriously in the end.įirst, the season could be held in total isolation in Arizona. With coronavirus cases still rising across the country, MLB held off on making any real plans for pretty much all of April. April: MLB floats various ideas for season The MLBPA held firm that such an idea is a non-starter, and that standoff was essentially the foundation of later negotiations. MLB later contended that agreement was just a starting point, and insisted the players take lower pay on a per-game basis if they wanted to play a season. It also agreed on prorated salaries in the event the season would have to be shortened, so an 81-game season would supposedly pay out 50 percent of the usual salaries to players. In exchange for a salary advance and assurances about service time, the MLBPA agreed to not sue for full salaries in the event of a canceled season. With much of the season still up in the air, MLB and the MLBPA came to an agreement that seemed to figure all of this out at the time. March 27: MLBPA agrees to prorated salaries March 12: MLB shuts down season over coronavirus concernsįollowing the shutdown of the NBA and NHL seasons, MLB put spring training on hiatus and announced the beginning of the season would be delayed by “at least two weeks.” Obviously, that was a dramatic understatement. We will be focusing on the major events of the league’s negotiations with the MLBPA and how we reached a point where both sides appeared to exit the table, then returned. Plenty more has happened with MLB and the coronavirus, like the league’s avaricious handling of minor-league player pay and cutting down the 2020 MLB draft. How did MLB and the MLBPA get through that? Here’s a timeline on a contentious few months of negotiations and soundbites between the league and union. Offers were rejected even before they were officially offered, and snipe after snipe was exchanged as the clock ticked down on the potential season. What came before was a frustrating stretch of squabbling and uncertainty that had Manfred saying the unthinkable at one point, that there might not be an MLB season.
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