Upset with MLB’s economic offer to players, the Major League Baseball Players Association soon will present a counteroffer to owners that includes a schedule of more than 100 games and an accompanying prorated cut in pay, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported Thursday.
Major League Baseball presented the players union with a revised economic plan for the yet-to-start 2020 season on Tuesday, proposing a sliding-scale of pay cuts, with the top-paid stars due to take the biggest hits. The proposal was MLB’s attempt to revise the year’s finances based on shifting realities amid the coronavirus pandemic, which caused spring training to shut down in mid-March and has led to Opening Day being postponed indefinitely.
The league proposal to further cut player salaries drew the players’ ire. Under the plan, the highest-paid players would see the deepest cuts in pay, reportedly somewhere between 60 and 75 percent.
To Washington Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer, a member of the MLBPA executive subcommittee, that is unacceptable. He took to Twitter Wednesday night to voice the players’ displeasure.
“After discussing the latest developments with the rest of the players there’s no need to engage with MLB in any further compensation reductions,” Scherzer wrote. “We have previously negotiated a pay cut in the version of prorated salaries, and there’s no justification to accept a 2nd pay cut based upon the current information the union has received.”
Passan said the players will seek to play 100 or more games instead of the 82 in the MLB proposal. More games will allow the players to earn higher income if they are paid on a prorated basis.
MLB officials have been hoping to start the season around July 1.
—Field Level Media
