Tampa Bay Rays: Pandemic-shortened season could turn into strike

Tampa Bay Rays News: MLB Owners made their latest pitch to the MLBPA today. It didn’t go well.

On a day when Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Blake Snell signed with super-agent Scott Boras, the league presented an alternative plan for the 2020 season after the MLBPA wadded up the first one, collectively masticated it, and then swallowed it whole.

Of course, the big divide is in the money. Owners want to make up for the lost revenue due to empty stadiums and lack of ticket sales, merchandise, food, and beer, by having players take a larger pay cut than the one they are already taking in a shortened season.

Today’s proposal included a sliding scale, which helped secure a higher floor for the lower-paid players, but asked the highest-paid players to take the largest cuts in pay.

Gerrit Cole signed on for $36 million this year over 162 games. Now, they are telling him if he plays in 82 games he’ll get about $9 million.

And to Blake Snell’s point, they are asking the players to perform with increased risk due to the coronavirus. This isn’t going to fly. It just isn’t. If you’ve ever watched baseball or followed along with the distrust between the players and the owners, you know this is not going to work.

USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported that the MLBPA views these proposed cuts to the game’s biggest stars as “massive.”

Clearly the players are not only insulted by the most recent proposal, they feel the owners are waging a public war.

The owners appear to be hedging their bets in case a second wave breaks out and the lucrative postseason tv contracts don’t payout.

We thought we were inching toward a season, now it seems like we are inching toward a strike.

Sadly, if the owners aren’t willing to work with the players then it appears we won’t have a regular season, let alone a postseason. There’s too much money to lose. They have to meet in the middle somewhere.

Meanwhile, they wage a public war involving billions of dollars. Mud is flying all over the internet. Let’s just try and keep our heads down and hope for some Tampa Bay Rays baseball in the 2020 season.