By: Holly Horning
The positive thing, if you can call it that, about this delay in the baseball season, is that it gives us time to answer the many questions our readers submit.
Even if you don’t hear back from us, we do collect each and every question for answering at some point. So do keep the questions and topics you’d like see addressed coming.
Which brings us to similar questions posed by 2 readers. Only with the recent negotiation between MLB and the MLBPA completed, are we now able to answer them.
Steve Sifton
Question on player’s salaries: Do the current MLB players still receive their salaries during this? If half or even the entire season is wiped out, would a player still receive his full salary? If so, are there insurance policies that pay for this or are the owner’s still “writing checks” every payday for nothing? Finally, if the whole season gets wiped out, would this year count towards a player’s contract or towards retirement benefits? I sense this may come up during the union negotiations.
Ray
Can Holly explain if players are paid on a per game basis? If the season is only 100 games, would they make 100/162 (50/81) of their negotiated salary?
So let’s get to it…….
Several days ago, MLB and the MLBPA wrapped up negotiations over the issues created by this pandemic involving service time, free agency, arbitration and salary. Rather than bog everyone down with all the minute details, let’s just sum up the resolutions for the first three topics.
Essentially, players will receive credit, including service time, based upon how long they were playing at the MLB level in 2019. Contracts that expire at the end of 2020 will also be honored. Conceivably, this may mean that if no baseball is played this year, Mookie Betts becomes a free agent without having played a single game for the Dodgers.
Ouch. Especially when you gave up 3 top prospects in order to get him.
Now, let’s address the salary issues.
During normal baseball times, certain players are given guaranteed contracts. This means that the entire salary sum was to be paid to them, no matter what. The only exception would be if they were suspended or expelled from baseball.
The Tigers have 7 players with guaranteed contracts: Miggy, Zimmermann, Cron, Romine, Maybin, Schoop and Nova for a total of app. $75 million. If this year didn’t require special negotiations, the Tigers would have been on the hook for all of it, even if a single game wasn’t played.
But we’re going through uncharted waters here. The vast majority of MLB players do not have guaranteed contracts and if the season was drastically shortened – or didn’t take place at all – then all of these players would receive a pittance to nothing for the year.
And that is the job of the MLBPA – to protect the majority of their players.
MLB gave all of the issues surrounding service time, free agency and arbitration to the Players’ Association in exchange for what they needed.
For a mere $6 million contribution from each team, each player who qualifies (lowest earners will receive more than the higher ones) will have portions of their salaries advanced to them during April and May.
Should baseball be cancelled this year, the Players’ Association and their members promise not to sue for missed wages. And if the season is cancelled, the money they receive will not have to be paid back.
If the baseball season is delayed, but still played, all players will receive a prorated salary based upon the number of games played. Even those with guaranteed contracts.
Essentially, baseball owners are paying a small price in order to protect themselves. The $6 million apiece is an insurance policy.
As to whether owners have taken out real insurance policies to protect their investments due to “an act of God”, that is unknown. Some do, some don’t. But only the most senior executives in each organization would know that answer. And no one’s talking.
The bottom line is that players will be rewarded with time and salary issues commensurate to their time in MLB during 2019. The guaranteed contracts of the few are being sacrificed for the benefit of the player masses.
What’s not clear is the status of the owners.
Reports are coming out that owners are extremely anxious about cash flow. Just because your team is profitable – or valuable – doesn’t mean you have the cash readily available to sustain it.
Cash flow is considered the number one concern of each baseball team right now. Teams have been paying money to employees and now players. They’ve spent millions so far on spring training, but have no revenue coming in. There’s no gate. No tv. No sales of any kind.
And this scenario has the potential for creating catastrophic losses within some organizations. Losses so severe that some owners may be forced to sell their teams as being reported by more than one financial paper.
Which is why the owners won’t easily give up on this season. They really need the revenue. Right now, the cash is coming out of their personal pockets.
Baseball is a $10 billion/year business.
You betcha that each team is going to push for the resumption of games as soon as legally possible. Even if they can’t have fans in the stands. At least they will be able to televise the games and collect tv revenue.
Which is another reason why both sides agreed to extending the season should baseball resume this year. Why they both want double-headers and are willing to play wherever, whenever.
Both sides want – and need – the money. And the future of some teams depends upon it.
With MLB on hold, we are mixing it up a little bit. Three new interactive blogs that allow you, dear readers, to have more input. Which means, we need your ideas and questions for several of them.
1. Send us your questions that you’d like to see addressed about baseball and we’ll pick at least 2 each week to answer.
2. What questions do you have specifically for Kurt and Holly? They can be on anything (nothing political or religious though) so you can get a more complete picture about baseball’s infamous (mostly) odd couple.
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The year was 1976 . The Tigers had very little talent on a team with no expectations. But they had a rookie who lit up Detroit and lit up Major League Baseball. Mark Fidrych packed the house at Tiger Stadium almost every time he pitched and plenty of times on the road as well.
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