Tampa Bay Rays: Some owners reportedly willing to cancel 2020 season

Tampa Bay Rays News: Some owners are reportedly okay with canceling the 2020 season.

Tampa Bay Rays fans are waiting like the rest of the league in hopes of a resolution to the monetary dispute preventing Major League Baseball from implementing a plan for the 2020 season.

The owners initially presented a plan to the players that included a revenue-split to alleviate the financial losses that would accompany empty stadiums.

The players emphatically declined this proposal. Tampa Bay Rays star Blake Snell was one of the most prominent voices to speak out against the plan.

The owners responded to the rejection with a new plan that included a sliding scale pay structure. Analysts believe the newest proposal was even worse than the first one.

Mark Teixeira, former player and current ESPN analyst called it a “slap in the face” to the players on Buster Olney’s podcast.

The sliding scale was a tiered plan that saw the highest-paid players take the biggest pay cuts. Gerrit Cole’s $36 million was projected to be slashed to about $9 million.

The players are reportedly ignoring the recent proposal and pursuing over 100 games with full prorated pay.

To be clear, that means they want their full salary divided by 162 games and multiplied by the number of games scheduled for the season. So, rather than the 50% pay for half a season in the initial proposal, they want to increase the number of games and increase their pay.

Another reason to add games for the players is the impact such a small sample size could have on impending free agencies or arbitration hearings.

Any baseball fan can acknowledge that one extended slump can ruin a half-season. Heck, last year Charlie Morton’s second-half ERA was over four.

As we await the players’ response to the owners’ insulting offer, we hear even worse news from Buster Olney.

Sources say there is a group of owners perfectly willing to shut down the season, to slash payroll costs and reduce losses

This isn’t looking good.