Major League Baseball and the players talked today for about two hours as they continue to negotiate towards the start of the 2020 season. We heard over the weekend that there would be a proposal from MLB regarding revenue and pay for the players.
Jon Heyman had the first update from the meeting:
MLB has conveyed its first proposal to players. MLB has dropped the revenue sharing idea and is offering to pay players a percentage of their prorated pay (not the full 100 percent). It’s a sliding scale with the more expensive players taking bigger hits.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) May 26, 2020
Heyman notes that MLB’s initial proposal contains an offer to pay players a percentage of their prorated salaries, with the more expensive players getting a smaller portion. There is word that the players making $1,000,000 or less will get nearly all of their prorated salary. No word on the high salaries and the percentage they might get according to this proposal. Since this was the initial offer, you would assume that the players will have a counteroffer, even though a large group of players would be in line to get their regular salary (prorated) under this proposal.
Heyman says he’s hearing that this offer is better than the discussed revenue sharing idea we were hearing about, “but there’s still a lot of work to do”.
MLB players were never going to go for revenue sharing, especially with limited time to figure it all out. Hearing from some this is a bit better but there’s still a lot of work to do.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) May 26, 2020
Joel Sherman from the New York Post has some information that favors the players, saying that they will get a higher percentage of their salary if the postseason is played.
Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal said that they are hearing that the proposal is disappointing to the players association, despite many players getting full pay. I don’t think that’s completely unexpected, since this was the first proposal. Most negotiations don’t start with the best possible offer. I’m sure MLB expected a counteroffer, regardless of their initial proposal.
The MLBPA is very disappointed with MLB’s economic proposal today, source tells me and @Ken_Rosenthal, calling additional cuts proposed “massive." League offered to share more playoff revenue, but on balance, those dollars are small compared to what players give up, PA believes.
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) May 26, 2020
If more information is released, we will update this article.
Small Update:
Key wording here from Heyman just now about the sides wanting to deal and the date of Spring Training II: The Return of Spring Training
While union may not love MLB’s first proposal it’s important to note that this is simply that — a first offer. While there isn’t a ton of time — MLB is hoping to begin spring training about June 10 — the sides are determined not to let economics stand in the way of a season.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) May 26, 2020
Not small update:
Jon Heyman has the actual figures for the pay scale, as you can see in these tweets:
MLB proposal: players making $563,500 minimum would make $262,217. Star making $35M would make $7,843,363 including postseason bonuses. (More to come)
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) May 27, 2020
and
MLB proposal continued; 1M player makes 434,143. 2M player makes 736,136. 5M player makes 1,642,113. 10M player makes 2,947,895. 20M player makes 5,151,099. 25M player makes 6,048,520. 35M player makes 7,843,363. (Counting postseason bonuses)
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) May 27, 2020
and
Here’s what percentage of their 82-game prorated pay players will get in MLB offer: player making $563,500 minimum receives 91.9% of prorated pay. Player making 1M receives 85.8%. Player making 10M receives 58.2%. Player making 30M gets 50.9%. Player making 35M receives 44.3%
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) May 27, 2020
That’s quite a drop at the end with $30M+, but obviously in only affects a select few and it’s just for the 2020 season.
