TAMPA — Max Scherzer brushed back the growing hopes of a 2020 MLB season Wednesday night. The Nationals ace and MLB Players Association Executive Committee rep shot down the latest proposal and said that the players do not need to engage the league on further salary reductions in an attempt to restart the 2020 MLB season after 11 weeks of the coronavirus shutdown at this point.
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In response to the league’s proposal to pay just a percentage of the players’ salaries on a sliding scale after the union already agreed to prorated salaries in March, Scherzer released a statement on Twitter at 11:09 p.m. Wednesday night.
“After discussing the latest developments with the rest of the players, there’s no reason to engage with MLB in any further compensation reductions,” Scherzer wrote. “We have previously negotiated a pay cut in the version of prorated salaries, and there’s no justification to accept a 2nd pay cut, based on the current information the union has received. I’m glad to hear other players voicing that same viewpoint and believe MLB’s economic strategy would completely change if all documentation were to become public.”
Players were “very disappointed” with the league’s proposal when they read it Tuesday. There had been no negotiation sessions planned this week, but the hope was that after some public sabre-rattling the sides could settle into some level-headed work later this week.
Scherzer, however, is expressing the long-held suspicions of the players, who feel that owners were not above board when discussing actual revenue of their baseball corporations. All but one team, the Atlanta Braves, are privately owned businesses and therefore do not have to make their books public. Before making the sliding-scale proposal, which would pay the players whose contracts make the least this year the highest percentage of their salary, and those with mega-contracts the lowest percentage, MLB turned over some financial documents to the league to make their case. The league reopened negotiations over salary under the premise that the previously agreed-upon prorated salaries were made without the knowledge that they would not be able to open their gates to the paying public. The owners are claiming they could lose about $640,000 per game played without fans.
The players, however, do not see the math of all the owners’ streams of income based on the teams, stadiums and broadcast deals.
Scherzer, who is in the sixth year of a seven-year, $210 million contract, would be among the big losers under the league’s latest plan. Scherzer was expected to earn a base salary of over $27 million this year before the pandemic struck the country and shut down baseball. He would make around $4.33 million under the current proposal.
The owners have proposed cutting the players in on the postseason revenue to try and make the salary cuts a little more tolerable. That postseason, however, would be in the fall when health officials are projecting a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, which could potentially wipe out the playoffs.
The sides have about a week to get a deal done if they want to open the season in early July as suggested. After this brushback by Scherzer, it seems they have miles to go before they can see a deal coming together.