Major League Baseball, players union reach tentative agreement to salvage 2020 season

[Benjamin Grimm]

Lots of stuff here...

USA Today wrote: Major League Baseball, players union reach tentative agreement to salvage 2020 season Bob Nightengale USA TODAY Major League Baseball and the Major League Players Association reached a tentative agreement Thursday evening on key economic issues in hopes of salvaging the majority of the 162-game season, according to an executive with direct knowledge of the negotiations, even if it means playing the World Series in late November. Major League Baseball owners will vote Friday to officially ratify the agreement, two executives with knowledge of the negotiations told USA TODAY Sports. The two executives spoke only on the condition of anonymity since the deal has not been finalized. The deal includes a commitment from MLB and the players to play as close to a full regular-season schedule as possible, with games in October and a postseason in November, providing the COVID-19 crisis dissipates and permits them to even start a season. The two sides would like to play at least 100 games, with the hopes of playing as many as possible, scheduling regular-season games through October and including weekly doubleheaders. They have also discussed the idea of expanding the current playoff format to help offset the loss of income, while acknowledging that if cold weather becomes an issue in November, they could move the World Series and playoff series from cold-weather cities to a neutral site. The biggest issue in the negotiations was service time, and the two sides agreed that if there's a season of any length, players would receive credit for a full year as if it was a regular 162-game season. And if the season is canceled, players will receive the same service time they accrued in 2019. This means that Los Angeles Dodgers All-Star outfielder Mookie Betts, who was acquired along with former Cy Young winner David Price in February from the Boston Red Sox, could be a free agent without playing a single regular-season game for the Dodgers. The two sides also have decided to still have an amateur draft this summer, although it will be reduced to five rounds instead of the usual 40 rounds, according to The Athletic. The players will no longer get their signing bonuses up-front, and it instead will be deferred, which ESPN first reported, paying 10% now and 45% percent in the following two years. Teams have also pledged to pay players on 40-man rosters a lump sum of at $170 million in upfront money, based on a sliding scale with service time. Players are scheduled to receive their first paychecks on April 15, and if the season resumes, they would be paid on a pro-rated scale based on how many games are played. In the meantime, clubs have also promised their full-time employees that they will continue to receive their salary through April 30 with no layoffs. Yet, several employees say they have received a warning letter from their club, which gives a 60-day notice on potential mass layoffs. Major League Baseball's best hope is to start the season around June 1, and no later than July 1, simply picking up the original schedule when it resumes, but are following the lead of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Once teams are given permission to start working out again, it's quite possible that instead of having their teams return to their spring-training sites for a minimum of two weeks, players will work out at their team's own home ballparks, reducing further expenses, and expediting the start before the new opening day. Teams likely will open the season with expanded rosters for the first month as well, and instead of having 26-man rosters, increasing to as many as 30 players. It remains unknown how long Major League Baseball and the union would be willing to play with no fans permitted in the stands, how they would adjust the unplayed schedule to make it equitable for all teams. Those questions can wait, but for now the two sides are hoping to make an announcement on what was scheduled to be the opening day of the 2020 season that they have reached an agreement on several critical economic issues, and praying there still will be an opening day sometime this summer.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2020/03/26/mlb-players-agree-deal-preserve-service-time-hold-draft/2923380001/https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2020/03/26/mlb-players-agree-deal-preserve-service-time-hold-draft/2923380001/

[Willets Point]

Seems overly ambitious to me.

[seawolf17]

Just *five* rounds for the draft? What the heck?

[Guest 41Forever]

The October games could be a little chilly. I don't love neutral sites for baseball, but as a one-year thing given the circumstances it could be OK.



Trying to think who has domes/ retractable domes: Tampa, Miami, Houston, Texas, Milwaukee, Arizona, Toronto... I've not been to Safeco, but is that something that seals the stadium and controls climate, or is just a cover for rain?

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, I'm not sure how reducing the draft fits in to all this.

[Chad ochoseis]

=41Forever post_id=34215 time=1585335715 user_id=69]
I've not been to Safeco, but is that something that seals the stadium and controls climate, or is just a cover for rain?

[batmagadanleadoff]

Chad ochoseis wrote: =41Forever post_id=34215 time=1585335715 user_id=69] I've not been to Safeco, but is that something that seals the stadium and controls climate, or is just a cover for rain?

Many years since I've been there, but I remember it as a rain cover. But I don't believe it gets that cold in Seattle in November.

[Frayed Knot]

Safeco is NOT an air-tight/air-controlled stadium.

For the most part Seattle never gets cold-cold but that doesn't mean it'll be pleasant. You get a lot of damp and chilly in winter, 40s & 50s mostly and weeks without seeing the sun.

This is opposed to the summer where it's damp and drizzly but the temp often rockets up into the 60s

[batmagadanleadoff]

If MLB has to play games in the cold November season, I doubt it'll play games in Seattle. Open air stadiums in LA and San !Diego before Seattle.

[smg58]

=seawolf17 post_id=34209 time=1585333577 user_id=91]
Just *five* rounds for the draft? What the heck?

[nymr83]

=smg58 post_id=34245 time=1585407670 user_id=62]
=seawolf17 post_id=34209 time=1585333577 user_id=91]
Just *five* rounds for the draft? What the heck?

[Frayed Knot]

The NCAA preemptively canceled ALL spring sports seasons right around the time the hoops tourney was nixed.

HS were/are being handled on an individual/state basis but most of those seasons likely never started either.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Rumor has it that they may cancel the AllStar game in order to get more actual games in.



I think it's a good idea.

[Frayed Knot]

I'm on board with that.



And I know that their aim is to get in as much season as possible prior to getting the same amount (if not more) post-season action.

But I wouldn't mind seeing it go the other way: Get more regular season in before going to an abbreviated playoff. Either go right to

the LCS & WS or I wouldn't even mind going straight to the WS; scrap the divisions for this year only and then match up each league's

best for a last week in October seven game special, and if you can cut out the 'travel days' so as to make it seven in a row then even better.



None of that will happen because the sport wants the money and the networks are starved to get their programming back at this point.

Shyeet, they were showing 15 year old basketball games and six y/o golf tourneys on network TV on a March Sunday afternoon fer crissakes.

[Edgy MD]

I'm curious if they will pick a mid-season All-Star Team anyway. They probably will, I would guess, since there's so much marketing and sponsorship tied up in it.



I'd come out in favor of them having a post-season All-Star Game, but everything is so day-to-day at this point, planning for November feels beyond silly.

[ashie62]

I don't see football, pro or college playing in 2020. Baseball?? One big tournament maybe

[Edgy MD]

I'm curious if undrafted players who would have been chosen in the sixth-10th round, now able to shop their skills to all teams, will start getting bigger bonuses than the fifth-rounders. Such a circumstance would hopefully lead amateur players and their agents to begin to greater assertion of rights, leading to the unraveling of the draft outright.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I was wondering that too. A lot more high school and college kids are going to essentially be free agents.

[HahnSolo]

I would bet more HS kids will go the college route without the certainty of a signing bonus.

[Frayed Knot]

=HahnSolo post_id=34571 time=1585854380 user_id=63]
I would bet more HS kids will go the college route without the certainty of a signing bonus.

[Edgy MD]

The problem with the "college route" theory is that the number of slots available there, as far as I can tell, will remain finite, and possibly smaller.



Last I checked, NCAA teams were limited to something like 11.7 full scholarships per school, along with (I think) one paid coach in addition to the manager, which is just horrible from where I sit. I know the limit on football scholarships isn't 500 per school, along with 50 coaches, but it sure seems like it. How many ways can men in suits fuck with young athletes and their hopes to get something out of their skillz while they are still able to.

[Willets Point]

It just occurred to me that if this continues into summer the college summer leagues will be affected, like on Cape Cod, which would really suck.

[Edgy MD]

With the spring season seeming lost, those summer leagues may be the last chance for some players to get noticed.

[Benjamin Grimm]

One plan reportedly being considered is that all games would be played, with no fans in attendance, at Cactus League parks in Arizona. Apparently they're less spread out than the parks in Florida.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Yes, it seems even if/when we get this thing under control the chances of recurrence seem pretty likely if you gather 40000 people in the same place.



If they did get it off "live" you'd probably have to arrange assigned seats 3 rows and 6 seats apart, regulate flow into the restrooms, ban concessions. Just getting into the park in normal circumsatances is about impossible as it is, prepare to arrive 3 hours early.

[Edgy MD]

And all those logistical problems would seemingly make it hardly worth the while, let alone the expense, for the league.



On the other hand, if they start playing in Arizona, TV ratings would be through the roof.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

yup.

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: On the other hand, if they start playing in Arizona, TV ratings would be through the roof.

it'd be nice if they relaxed blackout rules, which of course they won't.

[Lefty Specialist]

Ron Darling doesn't think there'll be a 2020 season. He said, what if you start playing and someone tests positive? You'd have to shut it all down again.



There is no way college or pro football could play this year.



We won't get back to games for real until there's a vaccine.

[Ceetar]

Vaccine's generally take upwards of a year.



but TESTING. build in regular testing of players and isolate and quarantine. build into the schedule time so that a team that test positive can take 10 days or whatever off and so can their current opponent, and their last opponent and their current opponent.



This would be better with them NOT all playing together in Arizona I suppose.