Tampa Bay Rays News: Players latest rejection means less money in 2020

Tampa Bay Rays News: The players declined the owners’ recent proposal last night and are waiting for the commissioner to implement a season.

Tampa Bay Rays News: For the longest time, the players were being asked to take less money to play more games. It was the equivalent of being asked to work 60 hours or 40 hours, but either way, your paycheck will be the same.

Say what you want, but I’m taking the 40 hours in that scenario too. Finally, the players threw their hands up and said, just tells “when and where.”

The commissioner responded by saying he wouldn’t do that because he was pretty sure they just wanted the league to implement a season so the players could file a grievance.

Were the players actually interested in getting a deal done or did they really just want to file their grievance? Well, they responded to the commissioner by littering Twitter with calls of “when and where.”

Tampa Bay Rays – The optics begin to change

Last night, the optics began to change.

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred and MLBPA executive director Tony Clark recently met to discuss the framework for a 2020 season.

The owners took the notes from that meeting and made a proposal to the players which involved the following:

• 60-game season
• 104% prorated pay
• $33 million in forgiven salary advances providing higher pay for most players.
• 104% of prorated per game salary
• No expanded postseason for 2021

A couple of notes on that proposal. As a part of the March 26 agreement, the league paid players $170 million in advances to cover expenses during the suspension. They offered to forgive $33 million of that which would result in a pay raise for 61% of the players.

They offered to pay every player 104% of their per-game salary.

Tampa Bay Rays – Olive Branch Snapped

Essentially, once both sides were up against the clock and a 60-game schedule was about all we had time for anyway, owners extended an olive branch.

Despite having the authority to implement a season with no additional benefits for the players, they still offered more money to the players in the form of 104% prorated pay and some salary advance forgiveness.

That is why my whole perspective on this began to change when the players voted this proposal down 33-5.

It appears the players’ primary goal is to file a grievance, which really makes that whole “when and where” thing look ridiculous.

Trevor Bauer, who has been very outspoken throughout all of this on Twitter, had this to say in response to the vote.

This entire time they wanted to get their money, and they were finally extra money and they declined it. We thought “when and where” meant tell us when and where so we can play baseball. It turns out it could mean tell us when and where we can get our grievance filed.

The league has asked the players two questions prior to implementing the schedule for 2020 season. Those questions are if they can report by July 1 and if they’ll agree to the safety manual. They await the answer from the players.

What are your thoughts on this recent turn of events?