Report: MLB Players ‘Very Disappointed’ With Owners’ New Proposal To Get The Season Off The Ground

Ken Rosenthal followed up his Athletic colleague Evan Drellich’s first report with some more optimistic clarification on the talks between the MLB Players’ Union and ownership:

Keep in mind: This is a first proposal with a long week of negotiations likely ahead. https://t.co/zwgdxSqMv9

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) May 26, 2020

It seems like the blowing winds indicated by Tampa Bay Rays starter Blake Snell about how he wouldn’t play unless he “got his” were the sign of what was to come. As we discussed in that post, and as anyone who’s followed MLB over the last 30 years can tell you, the MLB Players’ Union does not mess around. They’ve dominated MLB ownership in negotiations before. They’ve also maintained sky high salaries despite the sport’s drops in relative popularity compared to other professional sports leagues.

And it doesn’t look like they’ll back down “for the good of the game” as it seems MLB owners have hoped for. A portion of players may be up to play games because, hey, money and money and this is the best you can get right now. But we have a league full of baseball players who’ve had their off-field cheating largely protected, their earnings insulated from the sport’s mismanagement, and a sport where the bigger newsworthy debates center around “unspoken rules” that are entirely too precious. While countless people can identify many NBA players and even guys normally behind a football helmet in the NFL, you could practically make a game show out of asking the average American “What Does Mike Trout Look Like?”

Now it seems like baseball, and its fans, may need to reap what the league has sowed over the last few decades. The players are well fed, the owners are desperate. There may not be a middle ground to be found barring some drastic change in how both sides view the equation of pay relative to effort and risk.

It may be the moment to pray if you’re a fan of America’s self-proclaimed pastime. With NASCAR, MMA and the PGA all touting massive ratings thus far and the NHL likely to have a very fun playoff situation alongside the powerhouse NBA this summer, it may not even matter if MLB plays a single game to many sports fans.

Baseball is at serious risk of being forgotten at the time we need them — and they need us — the most.