Report: MLB players asked to take massive cut in latest proposal
By Ty Anderson, 985TheSportsHub.com
MLB and the MLBPA continued to squabble over financials on Tuesday, with the latest proposal including some massive salary cuts for the league’s players, according to an ESPN report from Jeff Passan and Jesse Rogers.
And shockingly, the suggestions in that proposal did not go over well with the players, per Passan.
“Players immediately bristled at the proposal, which includes an 82-game schedule that would begin in early July after a 21-day spring training, sources familiar with the plan said,” Passan wrote. “… The MLB Players Association is expected to reject the plan and counter in the coming days with a proposal that could include a longer season, according to sources.”
It’s just the latest back-and-forth in what’s become an increasingly ugly situation, and with no end in sight.
Potential salary cuts in MLB plan, sources tell @JesseRogersESPN and me:
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 26, 2020
Full-year Proposal
$563.5K $262K
$1M $434K
$2M $736K
$5M $1.64M
$10M $2.95M
$15M $4.05M
$20M $5.15M
$25M $6.05M
$30M $6.95M
$35M $7.84M
As you can see in this helpful breakdown from Passan, those cuts impact the game’s top-paid talents the most, with the top-of-the-market players absorbing a 70 to 80 percent pay-cut for an abbreviated 2020 MLB season.
(Ah, another chapter of millionaires vs. billionaires, and from a sport that almost seems determined to commit suicide. Just what everybody wants to hear in the middle of a pandemic and with over 30 million Americans currently out of work.)
But as noted by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, this is just the first volley in what’s expected to be a week of negotiations between the sides, and with a sizable philosophical and financial gap to be closed between the sides.
MLB’s discouraging update came on the same day that the NHL disclosed their plan for a return to action in July, and with both the NBA and NFL beginning to set plans in motion for a return to the closest thing to normal since the world paused in March.
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