All that matters this week is everything.
If a baseball season is to be saved, if MLB is, as it has often said, to be part of the healing of America, then this is the week to either put up or continue to recede from the nation’s consciousness.
After a month worth of posturing — and some world-class leaking — the league and its Players Association must reach an agreement about the protocols and finances for returning to play. If the sides can’t agree by June 1, which just happens to be a week from Monday, putting together even a half season’s worth of games before an expected fall second wave of COVID-19 hits becomes logistically more difficult. And if the parties haven’t reached an agreement by June 1, then it’s all the more likely it will be because, as usual, their negotiations have bogged down in animosity, mistrust and somebody’s overriding desire to “win.”
There is only one way to win this: To play baseball, providing the coronavirus does not roar back.
In Taiwan, they’ve done it. In Korea, they’ve done it. On Monday, Japan announced it set sights on mid-June.
“I’m optimistic, personally,” Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said last week. “It’s clear there are two major topics that need to be addressed sufficiently. The first is the health and safety of everyone involved. I believe if that one can be met, and I’m hopeful that it can, then I would anticipate everybody involved would work and figure out the second element, which is the financial one.”
What MLB has laid out on health protocols is detailed, ambitious and probably unenforceable across the game. As Elvis Andrus pointed out last week, are you going to eject somebody for giving a high five? The answer: Of course not. These should be treated as guidelines and recommendations, but there will be momentary lapses in the name of emotion and reaction. As long as players are armed with information, they are the ones taking the most physical risk and must be given some leeway to police themselves.
Finances are, in theory, trickier. Billionaires are trying to squeeze out some short-term savings while their long-term investments continue to grow in value. Millionaires are being asked to take pay cuts that amount to more than 50% of their negotiated contracts. The league had previously pitched a 50-50 share of revenues, which the players viewed as a salary cap. The new proposal, which is likely to still include some degree of an additional pay cut or deferral of some 2020 salary is due on Tuesday.
The players can’t win this element of the conversation. Nor should they try to.
Everything they aim for in these negotiations must be geared towards the long game. Such as: Free agency this coming winter and preparation for the next round of collective bargaining negotiations set for after the 2021 season. Their aim should be: Obtaining more useful information from the owners, particularly a clearer definition of what qualifies as team-oriented revenue streams and building solidarity amongst a base that has no conscious recollection of what players had to fight for in previous contentious negotiations.
Getting a better picture of finances would be critical to long-range negotiations. If the owners present a more transparent picture of those finances, too, it might just build a bit of trust for the next round of negotiations. It would be an essential building block for a real “partnership,” a phrase ownership likes to throw around when it’s convenient. It’s hard to be partners with somebody who isn’t providing you an open look at their business.
As for solidarity, it’s expected that pre-arbitration players, those with the lowest salaries in the game, would not see a further cut to their salaries. It’s important the union ensure that protection. It would also be important to negotiate for as large an active roster — say, 30, rather than 28 — for this season to give the most guys possible service time and major-league money.
The union has been driven by stars. Right now, it needs to act to protect the “little guys,” relatively speaking, in this. And by agreeing to play baseball, it’s also likely to help save a few jobs around the game for office lifers, who have endured painful pay cuts and furloughs, already. In that way, the players might actually finally be seen as the guardians of the game more than the owners.
Come time for the next negotiations, information, solidarity and public opinion would be three very valuable tools to bring to the negotiating table.
This is the week to get all that. Even if it costs some more money in the short-term.
