then coronavirus happened, 2020 baseball

Baseball is fxxked. The minor league story is the one that is not really registering as much it should. It's basically going to cause possibly upwards of 40% of all minor league teams to fold with MLB abandoning the clubs.

I do not think any of this bodes well for the national game.

A problem with describing MLB's labor dispute as a fight between billionaires and millionaires is that the majority of players have netted less than $1 million in ML earnings https://t.co/vxqzpnsrQ1

— Travis Sawchik (@Travis_Sawchik) June 5, 2020

Former pitcher Rob Scahill played for the Rockies, Pirates, Brewers and White Sox over parts of seven seasons in the majors. He accrued two years and 162 days of service time and made $1.31 million in major league pay.3 He said the $110,000 signing bonus he received as an eighth-round pick in 2009 was eroded by the “huge negative cash-flow” of living on minor league wages. He didn’t sign his first major league contract until 20134 — a one-year deal for $490,000 — but he split his time that year between the Rockies and their Triple-A club, so he earned $203,497 from the big league club.

Scahill’s last game pitched was in 2018 as a 31 year old; after his final attempt to make a team, he entered real estate. “Your average major league player needs a job after baseball,” he told FiveThirtyEight.

Scahill said if a player is savvy, he could save 25 percent of what he earns after taxes. If a player has $1.31 million in major league earnings,5 like Scahill, and is able to save a quarter of take-home pay after taxes and union fees, he would leave his career with $156,200 in cash savings from his major league salary. If such a player instead saved about 8 percent, the average U.S. savings rate before the coronavirus pandemic, he would finish his career with just $50,000 in the bank from his baseball career.

“Most grind out on a split career between Triple-A and the majors unless you’re a contract guy,” Scahill wrote via text. “For the vast majority of players, every dollar counts for the rest of their lives.”

I imagine the basketball and hockey re-launches have MLB scurrying around frantically right now.

"Impending" I should have added.

Scahill said if a player is savvy, he could save 25 percent of what he earns after taxes. If a player has $1.31 million in major league earnings,5 like Scahill, and is able to save a quarter of take-home pay after taxes and union fees, he would leave his career with $156,200 in cash savings from his major league salary.

I'm as sympathetic to the players as can be, but I'm not crazy about the argument that "this guy isn't rich! He's 31 and he's only taken home $600,000 after taxes!" It feels like those NY Times "We make $200,000 a year but we're not rich, look at all we have to spend on vacations and private schools and houses."

Never underestimate the arrogance of immeasurable wealth.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/mlb-owners-latest-offer-even-worse-than-the-last-one

Scahill said if a player is savvy, he could save 25 percent of what he earns after taxes. If a player has $1.31 million in major league earnings,5 like Scahill, and is able to save a quarter of take-home pay after taxes and union fees, he would leave his career with $156,200 in cash savings from his major league salary.

I'm as sympathetic to the players as can be, but I'm not crazy about the argument that "this guy isn't rich! He's 31 and he's only taken home $600,000 after taxes!" It feels like those NY Times "We make $200,000 a year but we're not rich, look at all we have to spend on vacations and private schools and houses."

― Piven After Midnight (The Yellow Kid), Friday, June 5, 2020 6:53 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

great job multiplying the number in the original quote by four to make your point - $600,000 is a lot more money than $156,200. also, 31 years old could easily be the endpoint of most of these guys' baseball career (as with scahill), so they get paid more per year than the average office worker but for a much shorter period of time, after which they aren't exactly equipped to go into another industry where they make six figures a year.

just rooting for the union to do a work stoppage at this point, assuming MLB will try to force a 48-game season. as much as it breaks my heart to miss a full season of trout and a million other guys. this is the only sport with a strong union and i want them to win.

MLB is now floating 16 playoff teams to go along with the 48 game regular season. it's like having a world series after spring training.

Besides the $$, MLB's proposal includes a revision to the Operations Manual that says players would have to sign an "acknowledgment of risk" before playing. Players believe it is designed to undermine their right to challenge MLB if it fails to provide a safe working environment.

— Jorge Castillo (@jorgecastillo) June 8, 2020

like it’s a fuckin trampoline park

Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt Jr.: “The industry isn’t very profitable, to be quite honest” https://t.co/blz102BSsW

— HardballTalk (@HardballTalk) June 9, 2020

lol

good one from a guy whose nickname here is Bill DeWallet

great job multiplying the number in the original quote by four to make your point - $600,000 is a lot more money than $156,200

$600,000 is his estimate of his total take home pay, 156,200 is his estimate of "if I saved a quarter of my salary throughout my career."

The league appears ready to piss off players, fans, put on a sham 50-game season, and further ensure a brutal, bitter fight over the CBA the winter after next because owners say they can't endure the financial hardship if players are paid a 50% prorated salary for more games.

— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) June 10, 2020

MLB goes galt

owners have no reason to offer more than they would spend under the 50 day pro rated plan right? 50 games with full playoffs is the dream scenario for them and they've had the option to do that all along. they just needed to drag things out long enough that 50 games made sense. so this is all just a farce. i hope the inevitable strike lasts ten years.

As I understand it they have the option to force 50 games, but only with regular playoffs. If they want the expanded playoffs (which money goes mostly to them and not the players) then they need the players to agree to it.

galt trip

Olbermann was a guest on the KBO game this morning, showing off his pricey ball collection: Fisk, Merkle's boner, Reggie '77. Marginally less obnoxious than his pundit mode.

#SFGiants fan reactions to Bumgarner being drafted: pic.twitter.com/RQFLTWnYuX

— Ben Kaspick (@BenKaspick) June 11, 2020

i for one am shocked

MLB’s new offer to the MLBPA for a 72-game season is roughly equivalent to what players would receive in a 50-game season at full prorated pay, source says.

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) June 12, 2020

'hey, uh..... look over there!'

my hope right now is that the 48 game schedule is forced and everyone in the union agrees to sit out for their health

might just all be posturing in the dark

The University of Houston has suspended voluntary workouts for all student-athletes after six symptomatic student-athletes in various sports tested positive for the coronavirus as the Houston area has seen a recent surge of positive tests.

in any case it's really something that MLB wants the *players* to take on the risk of playoffs not happening due to plague

lol can you imagine any american sport having these balls

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53056184

let's see if it goes beyond signalling but still, the signal's important

zing

Agent Joel Wolfe on @MLB owners crying poverty:

"The Marlins played without fans for 15 years, yet still managed to give a player the biggest contract in sports history (Stanton), and then sold the team for a Billion dollar profit, with 5 competing buyers."

— Patrick Saunders (@psaundersdp) June 15, 2020

They're all piling on. Here's Tom Boswell - working class hero!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/06/15/dont-let-mlb-owners-cry-poor-they-can-afford-do-whats-right-baseball/

this is all just a bad idea

https://www.amazinavenue.com/2020/6/16/21292849/mets-mlb-mlbpa-2020-season-negotiations-rob-manfred-tony-clark-baseball

Manfred is so pathetic.

buster olney continues to both-sides it, but it's been intriguing to see big names like boswell, rosenthal and apstein (at SI) just unload on ownership

Hearing that six owners that don't want a season. @Ken_Rosenthal reports 8 or more. Urgency for Manfred to corral his group before that number grows.

— Andy Martino (@martinonyc) June 16, 2020

pirates, a's, mets, cubs(?) . . .

wonder what the repercussions are gonna be in 2022 when the CBA has to be negotiated again. this seems pretty bad.

All the other sports leagues are paying their players in full, right? Korean Baseball, Japanese Baseball, German Soccer, English Soccer, the NBA, the NFL? Why can't MLB?

What even is the logic for the owners in not playing a season?! This is baffling to me

via gothamist of all places; links in original stub:

"The LA Times reported that the commissioner's office told the players' association that it would not honor the players’ demand to announce a schedule "unless the union waives legal claims against the league." And to top it off, MLB also informed the players union this week that several major league players and coaches have tested positive for COVID-19."

^duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude

did the MLB spokesman then twirl his mustache and cackle??? fuck’s sake

at the risk of aimlessing this (and correct me if i'm wrong anywhere):

can't speak to european soccer (do they have a union? or just rely on EU rules in general?)

NBA and NHL played almost all of their regular seasons, meaning the players got paid. NFL is run by even bigger assholes (maybe?) than MLB, but has not yet been truly affected.

the structure of MLB payouts is skewed -- the players get paid for playing 182 regular season games, and agreed in march to accept a pro-rated salary based on regular-season games played.

the owners pay the players for all these regular-season games, but then get a huge bonus from the playoffs. also they claim that they're losing shitloads with every regular-season game played without fans. so they have an obvious incentive to minimize the regular season and expand the playoffs.

estimates range on how much (if any) the owners might lose this year by playing without fans (A, B) but given that in good seasons -- of which there have been . . . all -- the players get no extra money, it is perhaps fucked up to ask them to take on the risk of bad years. for what do the owners deserve money, apart from taking a minuscule risk?

the march agreement imposed 'good-faith' negotiations toward a regular season that would be as long as feasibly possible while paying the players a 100% pro-rated salary. it also allowed the commissioner to set a regular-season schedule.

the commissioner, who is the figurehead of ownership, has over the past three months offered a series of deals that amount to 'we will pay you for roughly 48 games at your 100% pro-rated salaries and no more.' some of them tried to split the union by screwing high-paid players; the others offered levels of pay depending on whether the playoffs -- which pay the owners -- are completed. meaning that the players assume the risk of not only getting sick, but the financial risk that the playoffs are shut down.

recognizing that negotiations are useless, the players have said fine, give us the fucking schedule -- you set it, we'll play (for 100% pro-rated). but manfred can't do that right now 'in good faith'; his owners need to wait until there's only time enough left to play 50 games. thus the leaks of infections.

latest is that no season will happen unless the players waive all legal claims against the league, which means not just 'you cannot file a grievance regarding our obvious unwillingness to abide by the terms of the march deal' but also 'you cannot sue us if any of our half-assed safety measures gets you or a loved one killed by covid-19'

so. congrats to ownership for utterly uniting the players and dividing the owners! there's a group of owners that will not accept losing any money this season and there's a group of owners that either won't lose money or are rich enough not to care, and now manfred has to bridge the gap. lol!

this air traffic controller union lawyer who occasionally writes for baseball prospectus apparently has been indispensable in all of this

This article is a series of management falsehoods, presenting itself as a path forward. It's scary how a reporter would have missed everything that has gone on over the past few months, but apparently this one has. Let me hit the high notes in a thread 1/ https://t.co/Gbc6obQ6Fi

— (((EugeneFreedman))) (@EugeneFreedman) June 16, 2020

So Baseball Twitter is saying that the owners never wanted a season. Is this right?

And I think I asked this before but I still don’t understand. What do players get paid if there is no season? More than they would get for 50 prorated games?

players get nothing if there's no season

ken rosenthal is saying that he knows of 8 owners who don't want a season, probably owners of teams with some big contracts to burn

booming analysis mookie

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/dr-anthony-fauci-says-mlb-should-try-to-play-in-the-core-summer-months-and-avoid-october/

apparently an agreement might be on the way

i am really dreading the precedent set by expanded playoffs. if 14 or 16 teams becomes standard...

https://tosabarbell.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/tball2.jpg?w=520

i'd get used to expanded playoffs if it was the top x teams regardless of league so we don't have any sub-.500 in playoffs nonsense. this is true of every sport

at least in the nba shitty 8 seeds generally don't make it to the finals. baseball is a complete crapshoot.

yeah i know. but if it's 8 teams/league say, then last season the rangers would have been the 8 seed with 78-84 and that's... just so wack.

^^^knows about shitty 8 seeds making it to the finals