MLBPA’s 89-game proposal to MLB shows signs of compromise

At last, there’s reason to be hopeful that there will be an MLB season in 2020.

While the owners and players were far apart in the early financial proposals they exchanged, with each flat out rejecting the other, the MLB Players Association made significant concessions in a new proposal sent to the league on Tuesday, according to multiple reports, including ESPN.

After originally requesting a 114-game season at prorated salaries, the players have now asked for an 89-game season, also at prorated salaries.

Additionally, they’ve given the owners what they really want, a 16-team playoff structure that would allow the owners to cash in on the most lucrative part of the schedule for TV revenue. The players have also given them “broadcast enhancements,” which are expected to include more mic’d up players and in-game interviews to allow fans additional access for the televised product.

If no agreement is reached and commissioner Rob Manfred unilaterally implements a 50-game season, the owners would lose the expanded playoff format and the broadcast enhancements, providing motivation for a deal to be reached.

The owners had previously submitted a 76-game proposal, but only at 50% of prorated pay, which would be a total paycut of larger than 75% of their total salaries on the year, still a significant paycut for the players.

It’d be the steepest paycut in any professional sport, with NBA players taking a 25% paycut, soccer players in Germany taking around a 20% paycut and soccer players in England not taking one at all, instead making collective donations to charities.

With the players’ latest proposal, the obvious middle ground would be an 82-game season, likely to start in early July and end just before the NBA playoffs in mid-October. But whether the players get their prorated salaries or just a portion of them remains in question.

The good news is that they’re showing signs of compromise. Now the owners need to do the same.

And if the teams would stop making ridiculous public comments, such as those made by St. Louis Cardinals team chairman Bill DeWitt Jr., who told 590 The Fan that the baseball industry “isn’t very profitable, to be quite honest,” perhaps there’d be more optimism from the public that a deal might get done soon.

DeWitt purchased the Cardinals for $150 million in 1996 and the team is now worth $2.2 billion, according to Forbes. 

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2YhuB0h