2019-2020 Offseason Discussion

[Lee Stone]

Gonna be a fun 55 game season with 100% pro-rated salaries

Seems like where they've always been headed ... somewhere between 46 and 55.

[rmc523]

Pay the players 85% of prorated for whatever number of games played in 2020 and defer the remaining 15% of prorated play and call it a day and get started

[Lee Stone]

The union has asserted since the beginning that its not willing to back off a March 26 agreement that guaranteed the players full prorated salaries based on the number of games played. The owners argue that additional pay cuts are necessary due to a “lack of revenue” if games are played without fans. The players simply aren’t buying that argument. At least not without proof. So far, that proof has not been provided. Until it is, they will not willingly accept anything less than 100 percent."

What's to buy? Does anybody actually need proof that teams make less revenue if noboby buys a ticket, nobody pays for parking or concessions? Whatever the players are thinking ... I'm just not understanding at all. They want to be paid as if everything were normal from this point forward.

[Todd]

I would still like to see them move for some controllable youngish relievers.

Like Sam Coonrod(Giants) and Wei Chieh Huang(Rangers)

[Todd]

I would still like to see them move for some controllable youngish relievers.

Like Sam Coonrod(Giants) and Wei Chieh Huang(Rangers)

[fauowls44]

The MLBPA has rejected the latest MLB offer and say they will not counter. They are daring the owners to implement a short season. This is where we were likely always headed. It'll be interesting to see how MLB plays this. With a 48 game season, the MLBPA will file a grievance arguing that the owners didn't negotiate in good faith. If Manfred can get the owners to offer 60-something games at full pro rated pay, I think they have a better case in any grievance.

Now would be the time that a good commissioner would act in the best interest of the sport and get the parties back to the table...I doubt that will happen though and Manfred will implement a season and take it from there.

@JeffPassan
The Major League Baseball Players Association has rejected MLB's latest proposal and will not counter, sources tell ESPN. In a letter to the league, the union asked MLB to inform it of how many games it intends to play and when players should report.
7:17 PM · Jun 13, 2020·TweetDeck

[Nick]

Unbelievable that it's come to this with everything that's happening in the world.

[fish16]

So the owners get to rake in profits when things are going well but the second things don’t go as projected then the players are responsible and shouldn’t get their full prorated pay? Wtf is that? If they want to keep costs lower than do fully prorated salary for less games, but these offers are horseshit from the players perspective and they shouldn’t agree to anything less than a fully prorated salary

[Lee Stone]

Wtf is what? Players wanting to be paid as much to play in empty stadiums as those that feature paying customers is not only utterly outlandish, but bad faith bargaining. They have a March agreement that calls for concessions to be made if there are no fans in attendance. They are refusing to honor it, period.

I can't disagree with a word of this: "We are disappointed that the MLBPA has chosen not to negotiate in good faith over resumption of play after MLB has made three successive proposals that would provide players, Clubs and our fans with an amicable resolution to a very difficult situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The MLBPA understands that the agreement reached on March 26th was premised on the parties’ mutual understanding that the players would be paid their full salaries only if play resumed in front of fans, and that another negotiation was to take place if Clubs could not generate the billions of dollars of ticket revenue required to pay players. The MLBPA’s position that players are entitled to virtually all the revenue from a 2020 season played without fans is not fair to the thousands of other baseball employees that Clubs and our office are supporting financially during this very difficult 2020 season. We will evaluate the Union’s refusal to adhere to the terms of the March Agreement, and after consulting with ownership, determine the best course to bring baseball back to our fans."

[fish16]

Pretty simple then- prove it. They can easily open their books for once and show what the reality of the situation is but they won’t for two main reasons. The first is that they are likely not losing money at all still and second they don’t want to set the precedent. The owners are pretty blatantly lying about the reality of their financial situation this year. I’m not saying it’s business as usual but they are most certainly not being forthright about what their books will actually look like this year

[rmc523]

Wasn't the march agreement leaked out? I wanted to re-read it, but now I can't find it anywhere.

[rmc523]

I feel like writing a letter and sending it to both MLB and the MLBPA talking about how instead of being the first major sport back and building interest in the game, they've squandered that opportunity, and if anything have done even more damage to the sport with this absurd public back and forth that has accomplished nothing.

[rmc523]

I don't know why the league can't just offer a new deal that starts where they want (70% of prorated for 72 games) and then defer the remaining 30% of that prorated amount over the next 2,3, x number of years (the further out you defer, the less owners would have to pay in a given year, and the more they could theoretically pay free agents in that year.


----

All of this only increases the likelihood of a strike next year.

[Lee Stone]

Pretty simple then- prove it. They can easily open their books for once and show what the reality of the situation is but they won’t for two main reasons. The first is that they are likely not losing money at all still and second they don’t want to set the precedent. The owners are pretty blatantly lying about the reality of their financial situation this year. I’m not saying it’s business as usual but they are most certainly not being forthright about what their books will actually look like this year

Don't need to prove that not having 300-400,000 fans attending fifteen games each night is a huge loss of revenue. Everyone but the MLBPA understands that.

[fish16]

I feel like writing a letter and sending it to both MLB and the MLBPA talking about how instead of being the first major sport back and building interest in the game, they've squandered that opportunity, and if anything have done even more damage to the sport with this absurd public back and forth that has accomplished nothing.

I don’t think there’s any real long term damage because people will forget about this once the sport is back but it can’t be said enough how truly awful manfred is and how desperately the sport needs a new, more progressive forward thinking person in that spot similar to Adam silver in the nba. Baseball just refuses to adapt to new things in the name of “tradition” and it’s holding back the sport so badly. I fucking love baseball and even I can’t watch a full game without doing something else at the same time. There are so many common sense adaptations I would make that would make the game so much more appealing

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Don't need to prove that not having 300-400,000 fans attending fifteen games each night is a huge loss of revenue. Everyone but the MLBPA understands that.

Loss of revenue does not equal losing money for the season. Businesses aren’t guaranteed to make money, eat the lesser profits for the year, pay the players their full prorated salaries and move on.

When a team does better than projections and they make more money than expected do the players get more then? No. That’s just how business works. The players are not asking for their full contracted salary, they are merely asking that the owners pay them what they contacted for on a per game basis. That’s already a good compromise. The owners have a constantly appreciating asset and unlike the players they don’t have a limited timeframe where they can make this kind of money. They need to stop being greedy, pay them the full prorated salary, and get back to normal next year