Have you been following any of the online simulations of the 2020 season. Me, haven’t seen one of them. But I did see that in one, the Mets were 11 or 12 games above .500 and it made me wonder how that should make me feel. Should it be happiness because the team is poised to do well when/if the games resume? Or is it sadness because we’ve been prevented from seeing that and who knows how it will be when the real games start up again?
So, Joel Sherman writes an article telling (warning/threatening) fans that if the MLB owners don’t fix their proposal, then certain players like Mike Trout and Garret Cole won’t show up since their portion of the pay cut would be 70%, leaving a player like Cole with only a $8MM salary when he’s due $36MM.
https://nypost.com/2020/05/27/mlb-risks-losing-biggest-stars-if-owners-get-their-way/
To that I say: Who cares Joel? Do we really care if Trout or Cole sit out? I don’t. Players forget that it not the name on the back, it’s the name on the front. For example, let’s say that DeGrom decides to not pitch. However, Porcello, Matz, Wacha, Stroman, and say Colon are the starting five. Does that mean I won’t watch Mets games? Of course I will. Conversely, if DeGrom were to play for an Independence League team, does that mean that I’ll skip the Mets game to watch DeGrom pitch that night for his Indy League team? LOL to that. I’ll definitely monitor how he’s doing, kind of how I’m following Gagnon and a Flexen in Korea.
I really don’t care how much money players make, and if $8MM for two months’ work is an insult, then be sensitive and sit out. Full disclosure, I don’t like this offer, but the players rejected the first one and their agreement on March 26th was that if there aren’t any fans, the pro-rated terms would change – and they should!
Sherman notes that a player like Brandon Marrow that has diabetes is a vulnerable person; as are players like Lester and Rizzo from the Cubs that had cancer. I’m all for these players sitting out and having their insurance pay their portion or a settlement of some sort of say 15% for these players to be paid because obviously they need to eat and that money can come from the other players sacrificing. After all, they are all part of a union and when my dad got hurt, his union insurance paid him.
Too, he says that Betts and Realmuto can hurt themselves with a bad short season. I believe all players should get what they can while there is something to be gotten because if there is a second wave this winter, n o b o d y is going to games next year and passing up something for nothing will have ramifications.
This goes way beyond the salary. I think a number of players will sit out for various reasons and it is their right to. No matter what, I will watch the games and root for the Mets. And I will respect the players who decide not to play in 2020.
I will too Mike, but I would rather them reach an agreement that both sides can live with because I don’t know that pro sports will be better next year if there’s a second wave. Personally, I wouldn’t risk dealing with this again and having missed out on some money in 2020, unless it’s a player that has other problems as Sherman pointed out.
Blake Snell came out very arrogant on Twitter, but Trevor Bauer yesterday pushed back and there seem to be many players that want to play. The union is in a difficult position, and I think the owners have less to lose than the players. Especially with revenue sharing suspended this year, how many teams will make 50% of their payroll costs from TV deals? Not all of them.
Gus, dont forget this basic fact. Owners are making gobs more than whatever players are making. We place ourselves close to the players because we see them daily and their contracts are essentially public record. We are astonished that someone would pay 30,000$ per AB for a 4 K golden sombrero and know any of us would willfully do the same for the thrill of standing on the field. However, owners do not talk about their value and worth and monthly salaries. They sit high above, tell us nothing, move in shadows, and allow the notion to exists players salaries are an issue. In the real world, we have this giant problem of giving huge sums of money to entertainers while teachers, nurses, meat packers etc are treated like garbage. Sadly its the world we have. Meanwhile lets look at Jeffrey Loria. He buys the Marlins for $150,000,000 and sells the team for $1,600,000,000, for a profit of $1.45 billion dollars. So when we all complain about player salaries, the real dough is in the pockets of the suits.
Yup
Oh, I agree with everything you said, especially the wrongful salary structure of more important jobs. I also know, that owners are owners for a reason. Obviously, there’s enough for the best players to make top dollar but it doesn’t mean they all deserve it. I may work very hard but not have the success of someone who doesn’t work as hard at the same job for whatever reason. That’s life. My point is that players should negotiate the best deal, but don’t let the year go by expecting next year to be better because it may not be. And if they want to be an owner someday, well, they need to put that plan into motion then they can call the shots.
You do realize that the everyday normal person is responsible for this situation?
Salaries aren’t pulled from thin air. The amount that you can pay someone is dependent on the revenue that you get. And where is the revenue coming from? From normal people like you and me – who are choosing, not forced, to spend $10 for hot dogs, $20 for beer, $30 for parking, $50+ for tickets, and $99/month to our tv provider which in turn pay baseball teams billions of dollars for the right to broadcast to us. We could easily ask our gov to tax us more so there’s more money to pay teachers and nurses etc…, but we choose not to and instead give it to these entertainers.
You want entertainers and owners to not make as much as for others to make more? Get the general public to stop throwing money at them then…
How can we give this comment its own post? Just perfect!
If it were that simple. Ideally unions did that work, but somehow deep dark corporations convinced the public that unions were killing companies and yet we see every year CEO salaries And corporate profits rise like mad while stripping pay and insurance from workers. Genius move to literally demonize the very instrument capable of helping the individual worker who then votes against their best interest. And so you see what the MLBPA has done to protect its work force and wonder why that won’t work for other industries?
On another note, there will be a MLB draft. Mets have the 19th pick.