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In a board meeting on Thursday, the MLB Players Association’s executive board continued their stance on their commitment to the refusal of any additional salary reductions proposed by the league, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
Tony Clark, the MLBPA’s executive director, released a statement on the union’s position. Here’s what he led with.
Earlier this week, Major League Baseball communicated its intention to schedule a dramatically shortened 2020 season unless Players negotiate salary concessions. The concessions being sought are in addition to billions in Player salary reductions that have already been agreed upon.
On Wednesday, Major League Baseball rejected the MLBPA’s proposal for a 114-game season. According to this proposal, the season would have begun on June 30 and ended on Oct. 31.
MLB rejected the union’s proposal for a 114-game season and said it would not send a counter, sources tell The Athletic. The league said it has started talks with owners about playing a shorter season without fans, and that it is ready to discuss additional ideas with the union.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 3, 2020
Definitely not good news, as the league said they wouldn’t even send a counter. Here’s more from what Clark had to say yesterday.
“This threat came in response to an Association proposal aimed at charting a path forward. Among other things, Players proposed more games, two years of expanded playoffs, salary deferrals in the event of a 2020 playoff cancellation, and the exploration of additional jewel events and broadcast enhancements aimed at creatively bringing our Players to the fans while simultaneously increasing the value of our product. Rather than engage, the league replied it will shorten the season unless Players agree to further salary reductions...The league’s demand for additional concessions was resoundingly rejected.”
Jeff Passan tweeted earlier this week that if the two sides want to see baseball resume as early as the beginning of July, they’d have to come to an agreement sometime within the next few days. With each side having opposing viewpoints on what they want from a season, it’s likely this is going to take some more time.
Whether it’s 114 games, 81 games or 50 games, you’d have to assume they figure it out and we have a baseball season, right? Hence why I said assume, because who honestly knows anymore at this point.
Links
- The Score released over/under odds on averages for a number of Angels hitters in 2020 (if there’s a season). What bets do you like?
- Whenever Major League Baseball returns this season, at least half of all game broadcasts will be done remotely. Bruce Levine of 670 The Score reports MLB has informed announcers (both TV and radio) that they will not travel this season, and will instead broadcast road games remotely.
- In case you missed it, MLB.com released their picks for the best first round draft pick in every team’s history. Can you guess who the Angels’ is?
- Major League Baseball officials are “inclined to allow local and municipal governance to take precedence” in deciding whether to allow fans to attend games during the upcoming 2020 season, according to a report in The Dallas Morning News based on anonymous league sources.
- MLB could allow fans at Astros, Rangers games in 2020 due to policy from Texas governor, per report