SI's Bri Amaranthus and Chris Halicke discuss the proposal from MLB issued to the MLBPA on Monday and if the two sides can come to an agreement before a severely shortened season is implemented by commissioner Rob Manfred.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00The saga of negotiations between Major League Baseball and the Players Association continues.
00:05The latest proposal has some changes, but Players Association continues to be less than pleased.
00:13Chris, what is it about this new proposal that has the Players Association scoffing?
00:18Going into Monday, we were all hoping that the proposal from MLB was going to bring the sides
00:23closer together. And if any progress was made, it was very, very minimal. The players were not
00:28excited about the proposal. While it did offer a 76-game season, which is only six games less than
00:35the 82-game season, and that's mainly because now the July 4th start is pretty much out of
00:41the question just because of the time that players would have to get ready for the season.
00:47This 76-game season would start on July 10th. However, the players still want a full prorated
00:54salary. And in this proposal, MLB would be asking their players to take an additional
01:0025% pay cut on top of that prorated salary. And that's only if the postseason gets played.
01:07If the postseason has to be canceled because of public health reasons, as MLB is fearing would
01:12happen around a second wave of coronavirus hitting in the fall, if the postseason was
01:18canceled, they would ask the players to take a 50% pay cut on top of the prorated salary.
01:24That's something that has the players automatically disinterested. They remain
01:28steadfast that they want the full prorated salary. Whether that's a 48-game season,
01:32which is the worst case scenario, whether it's a 76-game, 82-game, 114-game season,
01:38it doesn't matter. The players want the full prorated salary. Now, MLB has made three different
01:43offers compared to the Players Association only making one. So on the surface, it looks like the
01:48league is making a bigger effort. However, the monetary cost or the basic economics of the
01:53proposals from the league remain about the same. The only thing that's changing is how much of a
01:59pay cut they're wanting to take on top of the amount of games. It doesn't sound like that
02:05really any progress is being made on either side. Both sides remain stubborn on how much they
02:10want to pay out or receive in pay when it comes to the basic economics of the game.
02:16So, the main question is, will either side be willing to budge? And if that's not going to
02:22happen, then it's going to severely damage the game and we'll probably be witnessing a 48-game
02:28season that many, many fans will really probably want to put their own asterisks on just because
02:35a 48-game season isn't really a baseball season.