MLB owners approve tentative plan to open season in July, but there are issues with union

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred speaks to the media at the owners meeting in Arlington, Texas, on Nov 21, 2019. Credit: AP/LM Otero
MLB owners on Monday approved a tentative plan to start the 2020 season in July, but the players’ union is not expected to agree to this version of the proposal because of concerns about safety and money, sources said.
The season can be salvaged only if the sides agree on how to do so amid the coronavirus pandemic. As they prepare to begin negotiations Tuesday, at least two massive questions remain: How can MLB ensure the health and safety of players, their families and others involved in staging a season? And what would the players’ pay look like?
For the latter, MLB is pitching a new player compensation system based on a 50-50 split of revenues taken in during the regular season and postseason, a source said. The union views such a system as a non-starter, another source said, because it perceives it to be a de facto salary cap.
The players in recent weeks have maintained a hard-line stance against reductions in pay beyond those that were part of the March 26 agreement between MLB and the union. In that deal, players accepted prorated salaries, so if they play a half-season’s worth of games — the current plan — they would receive half of their initial salary.
Owners want to further lower salaries because at least most and perhaps all games would be played with no fans in the stands and teams would not make as much money as they usually do. Ticket sales and other gate-related revenue account for 51% of teams’ local earnings and 40% of overall MLB revenue, a source said.
“A system that restricts player pay based on revenues is a salary cap, period,” MLBPA executive director Tony Clark told The Athletic. “This is not the first salary cap proposal our union has received. It probably won’t be the last.
“That the league is trying to take advantage of a global health crisis to get what they’ve failed to achieve in the past — and to anonymously negotiate through the media for the last several days — suggests they know exactly how this will be received.
“None of this is beneficial to the process of finding a way for us to safely get back on the field and resume the 2020 season — which continues to be our sole focus.”
And then there is the health and safety issue, which Nationals closer Sean Doolittle — among the most vocal and thoughtful members of the union — highlighted in a 16-tweet soliloquy Monday afternoon.
“Bear with me, but it feels like we’ve zoomed past the most important aspect of any MLB restart plan: health protections for players, families, staff, stadium workers and the workforce it would require to resume a season,” Doolittle wrote.
Among players’ top worries: having enough tests so everyone involved can be tested as much as needed — without taking those tests from others in the country who need them — and other medical protocols that ensure the safety of players and others.
“There are a number of players & staff who have preexisting conditions that they are aware of (and likely more who aren’t yet),” Doolittle wrote. “We need a plan that seriously considers the increased health concerns of any players, staff or workers who are at higher risk.
“Hopefully these concerns will be addressed in MLB’s proposal, first and foremost: 1) what’s the plan to ethically acquire enough tests? 2) what’s the protocol if a player, staff member or worker contracts the virus? We want to play. And we want everyone to stay safe.”
MLB’s proposal to the union also includes the details, confirmed by sources, that had been reported in recent days.
An abbreviated second “spring” training would take place in June, ahead of an early July Opening Day. Each team would play about 80 games in a regional schedule against clubs in its division and in the other league’s equivalent division (i.e. NL East teams facing AL East teams). Teams would use their home ballparks, if the public health situation in their community allows, with spring training facilities or other major-league stadiums serving as backup options.
The playoffs would be expanded from 10 to 14 teams, adding two wild cards in each league. And the designated hitter would be implemented in the National League.
Even if the owners and players can figure out all of the larger issues, they also will need the blessing of government and public health officials. Beginning the season is contingent on the coronavirus situation improving across the country, or at least in MLB’s markets. Further flare-ups could render answers to the above questions irrelevant.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose state is home to five major-league teams, said commissioner Rob Manfred assured him MLB “won’t do anything that is not consistent with state guidelines.”
“So I’m not concerned about what they do, as long as it’s consistent with state guidelines,” Newsom said. “We’ll see where we will be in July.”
Key points in the proposal sent by MLB to the players' union
-- Season starting around the Fourth of July weekend in ballparks without fans.
-- Spring training would start in early to mid-June
-- Each team would play about 82 regular-season games: against opponents in their own division plus interleague matchups limited to AL East vs. NL East, AL Central vs. NL Central and AL West vs. NL West.
-- Teams will propose that players receive the percentage of their 2020 salaries based on a 50-50 split of revenues MLB receives during the regular-season and postseason.
-- Teams would prefer to play at their regular-season ballparks but would switch to spring training stadiums or neutral sites if medical and government approvals can’t be obtained for games at home..
-- Expanding the designated hitter to NL games.
-- Postseason play would be expanded from 10 clubs to 14 by doubling wild cards in each league to four.
-- Teams would prefer to play at their regular-season ballparks but would switch to spring training stadiums or neutral sites if medical and government approvals can’t be obtained for games at home..
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