MLB, Player’s Association, and Owners Come to Layered Multi-Million Dollar Agreement
A lot of wealthy people came to an agreement on Thursday, if not slightly begrudgingly. ESPN’s Jeff Passan was on it first.
Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have a deal, sources tell ESPN. The players have voted on it already. MLB owners are expected to ratify it tomorrow. An excellent sign that draws a path forward as baseball tries to figure out when it will return.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 27, 2020
Backing up a bit, with the 2020 MLB season in limbo, a bevy of concerns piled up. Paramount of those were financial concerns. Of course, there were ballclub hourly workers that would go without much-needed paychecks, but that was handled fairly early on, at least for the interim.
Next, there was the question about what to do with minor league salaries, and that found a resolution, even if it’s a temporary solution.
But the big issue came with the millions of dollars at stake for big league players. With this agreement that Passan alluded to, there’s writing on paper on how things will go for players and the organizations… for at least the first two months of the original regular season.
As part of deal between MLB and MLBPA, players will receive an $170M advance spread over two months, source tells The Athletic. Salaries will be pro-rated based on length of season.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) March 27, 2020
MLB owners will advance players $170 million for April and May, sources tell ESPN. If there is no season, that money will be kept by the players.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 27, 2020
However, if there’s no baseball this year, there is a worst-case scenario plan. Yes, the money as mentioned above will be kept by the players, but worst of all for fans and teams, players will continue to accrue MLB service time which will be based on games played in 2019… which means this:
The most important thing for the players: In the doomsday scenario of no 2020 season, they will get full service time, meaning Mookie Betts, Trevor Bauer, Marcus Stroman, J.T. Realmuto and others will be free agents in November regardless of whether games are played.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 27, 2020
Yes, as feared, the Dodgers could lose offseason acquisition Mookie Betts without ever even playing a game in an LA uniform.
This story is still developing and there are multiple moving parts and facets to it. Dodgers Nation will continue to monitor and update as more comes through.
and Ver-do-go has a all-star career hitting in the little box called Boston..