It would appear that the 2020 MLB season will happen one way or another although the amount of money players will be paid, and the length of the season is still up in the air.
After rejecting the Major League Baseball Players Association’s 114-game proposal last week, the league made a new proposal to the union on Monday. This time around, the league proposed a 76-game season (six games fewer than its initial 82-game proposal) that would pay players half of their prorated salaries. Players would collectively stand to earn 75% of the prorated portion of their original salary if the playoffs go off without a hitch. Under the proposal, the regular season would culminate on September 27, while postseason play would finish before the end of October. Qualifying offers for signing players would be temporarily eliminated and in their place, a team would get draft pick compensation for losing a player who signed a multi-year deal for over $35-Million or a one-year deal for over $17.8-Million.
The league also asked for the 2020 postseason fields to expand beyond the previously discussed 14 teams, adding one more team per league, bringing the total to 16 playoff clubs. Under this format, the No. 1 seed would play the No. 8 seed, the No. 2 seed would play the No. 7 seed, so on and so forth, until each league has whittled down the field to the two teams that would face one another in the World Series. The first round of play would be a three-game set.
As Mark Polishuk (MLB Trade Rumors) writes, “That’s a particularly strong deviation from the norm, where the top teams in each league have long been assured at least a five-game series against the weakest playoff entrant. The prospect of a sub-.500 No. 8 seed upsetting a dominant N0. 1 seed would create some excitement, to be sure, but the watered-down playoff field and short early-round formats would undoubtedly be a turnoff for a very vocal set of MLB fans as well.”
The owner’s motivation is clear: playoff television contracts represent their best stream of revenue without fans in stands while expanding the postseason field would ensure that more games are played. “The latest proposal from MLB to the MLBPA calls for owners to share some of those television rights with the players — typically, player postseason shares are derived from gate alone — so it’s only logical that owners are keyed in on making those games as lucrative as possible,” writes Polishuk.
While it’s encouraging to see a new effort by Major League Baseball after the league previously said it would not offer another proposal after rejecting the union’s counter-proposal. Yet this offer is, essentially, the same one the league has previously made twice. The league’s 82-game, sliding-scale proposal would have allowed players to earn, on average, about a third of their full-season salary, and the new offer is also in that ballpark.
Per Evan Drellich (The Athletic), the union views the latest proposal as a step backward since players would depend on postseason bonuses to receive their full pay — even though the league has continually expressed concern about the possible cancellation of postseason play due to a surge in COVID-19 cases in the fall. While some contend this offer translates to about $200-Million more in total player salaries, it would appear that would be contingent upon the postseason being played in full.
MLB communicated its view that both sides will “need to reach an agreement by Wednesday” in order to prepare for a 76-game campaign, yet the proposal will likely be rejected by the union. It, however, is interesting that the owners have offered playoff expansion. “On the surface, that’s something the MLBPA could incorporate into a counter-proposal, although it remains eminently possible that we simply see commissioner Rob Manfred implement a heavily truncated season with fully prorated pay,” writes Steve Adams (MLB Trade Rumors). “As few as 48 to 54 games have been speculated upon in the past week.”