We heard on Saturday night that MLB was planning to present a proposal to the players union regarding the start of the 2020 season today. Tonight we hear that the two sides had talks today. Jon Heyman has a series of tweets about the discussion topics today.
The first tweet mentions that they discussed logistics, protocols and testing, but there was nothing yet regarding the pay for players.
MLB and the players union talked a lot about the most important issue today — health and safety. There was talk about protocols, logistics and especially testing. There was economic talk as well but no proposal about revenue sharing or salary reductions yet.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) May 12, 2020
Heyman also stated the obvious that adequate testing ability is a must.
MLB does believe they will be able to acquire adequate testing, which is an absolute necessity to make this work. Without enough testing, they won’t play.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) May 12, 2020
Joel Sherman, who was among the sources first releasing details on Saturday about this meeting, notes that they got together for 2 1/2 hours and it was mostly about the safety of everyone involved.
Heard MLB/PA meeting was 90 minutes, break, then another hour and the main focus was on health and safety matters.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) May 12, 2020
This is the interesting tweet from today and it regards pay. MLB owners state that they would lose money if they had to pay a pro-rated salary to the players. Nothing was discussed today, but there have been rumors floating around the last few days of revenue sharing possibly being brought up.
MLB’s position is that it will lose more money if they play games without fans and pay prorated salaries than if they don’t play at all. Thus, owners are saying they will not pay pro-rated salaries.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) May 13, 2020
The two sides are expected to meet again soon. I’m sure we will get details after each meeting until an agreement is reached.
