MLB, Union Begin Negotiations With Health And Safety Big Part Of Plan To Start Season

Major League Baseball and the union for the players began serious virtual negotiations Tuesday with an abbreviated 2020 regular season in the balance. If there’s no agreement there will be no season.

And while the focus has been on economics and whether the MLBPA will accept a radical proposal from the owners to evenly split revenue for an 80-game season that would begin around July 4, health of all the parties is the major concern in this time of the coronavirus.

“It seem like conversation about an MLB restart has shifted to economic issues and that’s really frustrating,” Washington Nationals reliever Sean Doolittle posted on Twitter Monday. “Until there’s a vaccine, let’s focus on keeping everyone as safe as possible, minimizing the risks so we can play baseball again.”

Information obtained by Boomskie on Baseball substantiates the fact that health and safety issues compiled with the help of the nation’s top physicians are as much of a priority as economics.

MLB’s extensive health plan includes heavy testing, social distancing, what happens if someone becomes infected and tests positive without shutting down the season, travel arrangements, sanitation, how families can visit, and very limited people allowed in the ballpark.

The plan would be to start the season without fans, broadcasters and probably even baseball writers present. Broadcast camera positions would be limited with announcers restricted to calling the game from the studio while watching on video screens.

Writers could be asked to either cover the games from remote locations outside each ballpark or from home with virtual interviews of all players and managers.

Writers had already been barred from spring training clubhouses and had to speak to players under controlled conditions in the days before playing the sport was halted.  

Commissioner Rob Manfred shut down spring training and delayed the start of the regular season March 12. At the time there were 1,663 cases and 40 deaths nationwide tied to the coronavirus. As of Tuesday, those figures in the U.S. had accelerated to 1.36 million cases and 81,507 deaths.

In the ensuing weeks after the sport went dark, the players negotiated a pro-rated schedule of payment this season through June 1 based on games played with a non-refundable $170 million distributed through the union. If there’s no season, the players won’t be paid anything further, and mass furloughs and layoffs are expected throughout the sport.

As of this week, without any revenue coming in, each Major League team has already lost $100 million. The business grossed almost $11 billion this past season.

The owners’ proposed share of revenue is expected to cover operational costs at the outset with the hope that restrictions will eventually be lifted and at least a limited number of fans might be able to attend games if the season progresses as far as an expanded playoffs.

Still the union seems very resistant to the 50-50 concept.

“A system that restricts player pay based on revenues is a salary cap, period,” Tony Clark, the union’s executive director, told The Athletic. “This is not the first salary cap proposal our union has received. It probably won’t be the last.

“None of this is beneficial to the process of finding a way for us to safely get back on the field and resume the 2020 season — which continues to be our sole focus.”

Health and safety are obviously the primary concern.

“We want to restart the season again,” Doolittle posted on Twitter again Tuesday. “We also want everyone it would require to resume a baseball season to be as safe as possible.”