MLB rejects the players’ association latest proposal

Baseball (Jay Schyler Raadt, Wikimedia Commons)

There does not look like there will be any Major League Baseball anytime soon. On Wednesday, the owners of Major League Baseball rejected the players’ proposal of a 114 game regular season and playoff.

There are a couple of significant concerns from the owners. The first, under the players’ association’s proposal, the league may not end until early December. That causes issues with the owners because they really want a postseason, (where they get the majority of television revenue), and there is a possibility that coronavirus numbers in the United States could skyrocket in the fall at the same time that flu season is supposed to start. So ideally, owners want the season to end by October.

Just how much money do the owners receive from broadcast revenue in the playoffs? Try a whopping $787 million according to ESPN.

The second concern is also related to economics, specifically on how much the players should be paid. Under the MLBPA’s counter-proposal, they wanted no additional paycuts. They realize they will not be paid at the full amount this season, because of coronavirus. Their proposal to the owners was 70% of the original salary. In Major League Baseball’s proposal on May 26, which was rejected, the owners were proposing players who received a minimum wage ($563,500) would get 47% of their original salary, while the players who received the most, would only get 23%.

While negotiations between the players and owners have been excellent in the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association, during the coronavirus time period, the same cannot be said for Major League Baseball. Quite frankly, the inability of the two sides being able to agree on how the season will resume in 2020 is downright embarrassing.