Major League Baseball has presented a new proposal to players, one that was a major increase over the previous proposal. Karl Ravech was first with the details of the proposal.
MLB has made proposal to Players. 75 percent Prorated salary. 76 game season. Playoff pool money. No draft pick compensation for signing player. Season finishes September 27th. Post season ends at end of October. Significant move towards players demands and effort to play more.
— Karl Ravech (@karlravechespn) June 8, 2020
There are also no sliding scale pay cuts like the initial offer had, where the richer players got a smaller portion of their earnings.
New MLB offer is for 25% paycut for players rather than 40%. Also not a sliding scale. Players preferred to avoid the sliding scale/progressive cut and MLB listened.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 8, 2020
Despite the fact that the owners/MLB made a significant move towards the demands of the players, Jon Heyman is saying that the player/agent reactions range from “small step” to “trash”.
Like in previous proposal, the player pay decreases to 50% of prorated pay if there’s no postseason. This time it goes to 50 from 75%. Last time to 50% from 60. In any case, player/agent reax to new proposal generally is not positive. Reax ranges from “small step” to “trash”
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 8, 2020
Those reactions are disappointing to hear because it’s neither a small step nor something that would qualify as a “trash” offer. That offer is an increase of $200 M more total to the players over the previous offer, plus it addresses the concerns of the season going too late, which owners feel it is necessary to avoid a possible second wave of the coronavirus as the weather gets colder. It could also help free agents this winter who would normally have draft picks tied to their signing.
Heyman said that he still expects a season to start despite those negative reactions to the new proposal. I would think so too, because they are significant steps towards an agreement, regardless of the reactions. If anything else comes up today, we will post an update here.
