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By the end of this week, we likely will know if there will be an MLB season in 2020. Yesterday, multiple MLB reporters shared news about the players association delivering their proposal to the league.
According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, it includes 114-game season that would end October 31, the right to opt out of the season for all players and potential deferral of salaries if 2020 the postseason were canceled. He also added this.
The inclusion of potential deferrals by players is an olive branch, even if it does apply just to a canceled postseason.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 1, 2020
It would defer $100M total, applied to players making $10M+ before proration, and would do so with interest to make players whole. It opens the door to more.
According to Evan Drellich of The Athletic, the season would begin on June 30. So over the course of 124 days, there would be a 114 game MLB season. Not exactly sure how they’d manage to make that work, but my guess is there will be expanded rosters and there will be a lot of double-headers.
Players who are at ’high risk’ would receive full salary and service time while the others could opt out but won’t be paid.
Important note from the MLBPA's proposal. It has a season start date of June 30. Players want three weeks for training. Bake in a few days to travel to cities — domestically and from around the world — and for coronavirus testing. The point: a deal needs to get done this week.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 1, 2020
There is no deadline for a deal to be completed, but if they plan on beginning the season on June 30 and giving the players three weeks to train, that gives the MLB until around June 9 at the latest to reach an agreement.
Links
- With all that’s going on in the world, check out this great piece from The Athletic detailing the time that Pee Wee Reese put his arm around his teammate, Jackie Robinson
- Adrian Gonzalez suggests MLB owners play with non-40-Man roster players. He also says having a 2020 season might not be the smartest idea.
“This year is already going to be half a season, maybe less,” Gonzalez told Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times. ”It’s already going to be kind of awkward to get things going. People are going to get sick. We might start up and have to shut down again. I would say let’s just work on what we want in the collective bargaining agreement for next year and let’s just get that one right.”
- Both the Dodgers and the Angels have stepped up their stadium workouts in preparation for the start of the season
- ESPN’s Buster Olney says that not only the 2020 MLB season is at stake, but the future of baseball is at stake as well
- The 2020 MLB Draft is going to air live on MLB Network, ESPN and ESPN2