MLB Players ‘Resoundingly Rejected’ The League’s Plan To Start The Season And Baseball May Be Screwed

ESPN – Major League Baseball players will not take another pay cut and have “resoundingly rejected” the league’s plan to begin the season, according to a statement Thursday from union executive director Tony Clark.

The statement came after a two-hour conference call of the association’s executive board and several other Major League Baseball Players Association player leaders and one day after the league rejected a proposal from the players to play 114 games with full prorated salaries.

The league wants a drastically reduced schedule in order for owners to be able to pay players on a per-game basis.

“Earlier this week, Major League Baseball communicated its intention to schedule a dramatically shortened 2020 season unless players negotiate salary concessions,” Clark said. “The concessions being sought are in addition to billions in player salary reductions that have already been agreed upon.”

“Players proposed more games, two years of expanded playoffs, salary deferrals in the event of a 2020 playoff cancellation, and the exploration of additional jewel events and broadcast enhancements aimed at creatively bringing our players to the fans while simultaneously increasing the value of our product,” Clark’s statement read. “Rather than engage, the league replied it will shorten the season unless players agree to further salary reductions. …

“The overwhelming consensus of the board is that players are ready to report, ready to get back on the field, and they are willing to do so under unprecedented conditions that could affect the health and safety of not just themselves, but their families as well. The league’s demand for additional concessions was resoundingly rejected.”

Me to this year’s MLB season:

Before the pandemic sidelined all of the sports, I was excited to be on the cusp of another season of MLB. As a DFS host, it gets a little exhausting by the end of the year discussing stats like “ISO”, “K rate”, “swinging strike rate” over and over again. It can get even more tiresome to see our ol’ pal EMac win our Live Before Lock dong pick game last season.

But the reliable data and predictability in MLB is always a welcome change compared to the other major leagues I cover for Awesemo. The numbers are the numbers in baseball. There’s a beauty in how you can snuff things out in the league in a way other sports don’t allow. Things tend to happen as expected in MLB at a rate commensurate with every player’s expected outcomes. It’s almost relaxing to cover the sport in some ways with its lack of overall variance compared to others.

And this negotiation process is where that relaxed predictability has ended. MLB players had agreed to a certain amount of concessions, as Tony Clark points out in the article. It seemed like a season was a sure thing. But MLB owners decided to throw the ol’ knuckle change at the players in their attempt to walk back the exorbitant salaries they pay some guys relative to other leagues. When you combine that with players’ refusal to take anything less than that financially, any chance at a season may very well be out the window.

Owners reportedly believe they can force players to play a shortened season at pro-rated salaries. We’ll see if that comes to fruition. But right now, it’s not looking good for MLB and, overall, the game of baseball in America.

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