Steve Melewski

MLB takes a step toward a 2020 season

MLB takes a step toward a 2020 season
Will we hear the cry to "Play ball!" in July? One day after I wrote in this space about how bad it looked and how we had a right to be disappointed in both the players and owners, it seems an actual deal may be getting closer. The players held firm to get 100 percent of prorated salaries and they will reportedly get that. But just for 60, 65, or 66 games, something in that neighborhood, although they could negotiate for more. The owners didn't want to pay full prorated salaries for much more...
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Mark Zuckerman

Time for baseball to do what's in the best interests of baseball

Time for baseball to do what's in the best interests of baseball
When baseball owners approached Kenesaw "Mountain" Landis in 1920 and asked him to become the first commissioner in professional sports, the then-U.S. District Court judge insisted he be given a very specific power. Landis insisted he be allowed to make major decisions on his own, without approval of owners or players, for matters he believed were "in the best interests of baseball." Exactly one century later, that phrase remains written into Major League Baseball's constitution, and every...
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Mark Zuckerman

Chance for deal seems dead after statements by MLB, players

Chance for deal seems dead after statements by MLB, players
Whatever sliver of hope remained that Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association might find a way to come together and negotiate a reasonable settlement to their ongoing fight over salary structure appeared to go up in smoke Saturday night after both entities issued nasty statements accusing each other of ruining any chance of a reasonable 2020 season. MLBPA executive director Tony Clark all but gave up further negotiations and essentially demanded that Rob Manfred tell the players...
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Mark Zuckerman

Players, owners can't try to fight 2021 battle in 2020

Players, owners can't try to fight 2021 battle in 2020
There are problems with Major League Baseball's economics system. Big problems. Yes, the sport brings in as much as $11 billion a year, but that doesn't mean the economic state of the sport is healthy. Players have been making this argument for two years now. How can owners be making so much money while free agency remains stagnant? How can so many teams be profitable while still claiming they need to cut payroll as part of a long-term rebuilding plan? And how can the best players in this...
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Mark Zuckerman

Set a deadline, and you might actually get a deal at last

Set a deadline, and you might actually get a deal at last
Precisely 12 weeks have passed since Major League Baseball shut down spring training and delayed the start of the regular season, the novel coronavirus having forced the entire nation to shut down like never before. Nobody knew at that moment how much time would pass before baseball could be played again, but slowly it became clear the target date for starting a condensed 2020 season would fall right around July 4. Which meant teams would need to be able to start holding workouts for a second...
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Mark Zuckerman

MLB, union seem far apart, but middle ground awaits them

MLB, union seem far apart, but middle ground awaits them
It's hard to look at the competing proposals for the 2020 season offered up by Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association and come to the conclusion that the two sides are anywhere close to striking a deal. But here's a key point that must be taken into consideration when trying to gauge the state of negotiations: Both sides are purposely making proposals that fall at the extreme ends of their acceptable spectrums. Not because anyone believes the opposing side is going to accept...
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Mark Zuckerman

Nationals change course, will keep paying minor leaguers in full

Nationals change course, will keep paying minor leaguers in full
One day after learning their own major league players had pledged to cover the pay cuts the organization was imposing on minor leaguers, Nationals ownership reversed course and elected to continue making full weekly stipend payments to their players, a source familiar with the decision confirmed. The Nationals' intention to reduce the stipends given to minor leaguers from $400 per week to $300 per week throughout June was immediately met with a harsh reaction from the franchise's own big...
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Mark Zuckerman

Nats players pledge to cover minor leaguers' pay cuts

Nats players pledge to cover minor leaguers' pay cuts
Nationals players, after learning Sunday the organization is cutting minor leaguers' weekly pay this month, have collectively pledged to cover the difference on their own. The club, which by Major League Baseball mandate had been paying all minor leaguers $400 per week throughout April and May, will reduce that amount to $300 per week in June, a source familiar with the decision confirmed. The reductions come as the organization also released more than two dozen minor league players, a trend...
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Mark Zuckerman

It's time for baseball to help bring us back together

It's time for baseball to help bring us back together
It all seems so trivial right now, doesn't it, the bickering between Major League Baseball and its players over how to fairly set salaries for the 2020 season? Our country is coming apart at the seams, protests and riots consuming cities across America over an issue that has plagued this land of ours for centuries and has now reached a boiling point. All of this, mind you, against the backdrop of a global pandemic and collapsed economy. We're supposed to care about baseball right now? But...
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Mark Zuckerman

Scherzer shoots down MLB plan as clock ticks down for deal

Scherzer shoots down MLB plan as clock ticks down for deal
If you didn't realize how far apart Major League Baseball owners and players were in their negotiations over pay cuts for the proposed 2020 season, Max Scherzer served up a harsh reminder late Wednesday night that the chasm right now is vast. The Nationals ace and member of the MLB Players Association's eight-person executive subcommittee said the union has no intention of accepting any more salary reductions beyond what was already agreed to in late March. And he put the onus on owners to...
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Mark Zuckerman

Reduced pay, but no layoffs, for Nationals employees

Reduced pay, but no layoffs, for Nationals employees
While Major League Baseball and its players continue to spar over how to restructure salaries for the 2020 season, club employees around the sport are beginning to learn they won't be paid in full this year. The Nationals joined the list Tuesday, informing all full-time team employees they will see their salaries and work hours reduced by a modest amount. According to a source familiar with the club's decision, all full-timers in both the baseball and business sides of the organization will...
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Mark Zuckerman

Can owners, players agree on parameters of 2020 season?

Can owners, players agree on parameters of 2020 season?
Major League Baseball owners reportedly agreed Monday to a proposal for a 2020 season, one that would include an abbreviated second round of spring training in June, then a regular season of roughly 80 games that would run from July through September, then an expanded postseason that includes two more wild card teams in each league but could still be wrapped up around Halloween. Sounds great, right? Our long national nightmare is almost over! The only thing the league needs now is approval of...
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Mark Zuckerman

What matters to you: More games or fewer changes?

What matters to you: More games or fewer changes?
I feel like I've already said this countless times over the last three weeks, but let's state it again for the record: As much as we all want to project when the baseball season (or any other sport's season) will begin, it's pointless right now. There's simply no way to know with any certainty when the world will be safe enough for sporting events and the mass gatherings they draw. That hasn't stopped a lot of folks from trying to figure this out. Some insist it can happen by June. Some...
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Mark Zuckerman

Union creates fund for non-roster players in big league camps

Union creates fund for non-roster players in big league camps
The agreement struck last week between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association ensured all players on 40-man rosters would be paid a partial salary even if there's no 2020 season. But what about longtime big league players who aren't currently on 40-man rosters? That group was taken care of Friday when the union voted to establish an assistance fund for players with major league experience who were in spring training as non-roster invitees. The fund will pay anywhere from $5,000...
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Mark Zuckerman

Manfred, Clark offer widely different views of state of baseball

Manfred, Clark offer widely different views of state of baseball
Monday night's Home Run Derby, with Nationals slugger Bryce Harper front and center in his home ballpark, was a rousing success. On that point, Rob Manfred and Tony Clark are in complete agreement. "Bryce Harper put on one unbelievable show," Manfred said today in the Major League Baseball commissioner's annual Q&A session with members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. "Amazing how he engaged the fans here in his hometown." "Last night was phenomenal," Clark, head of...
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Byron Kerr

Minors to implement runner on second base in extra innings

Minors to implement runner on second base in extra innings
Major League Baseball has gone back and forth this offseason on directives that could help to speed up the pace of play. Unable to come an agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association, Minor League Baseball instead will implement a good amount of these regulations starting this season. The biggest change will be an attempt to shorten games that are tied after nine innings. At all levels of Minor League Baseball, extra innings will begin with a runner on base. The runner will be...
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Pete Kerzel

Clubhouse visitors, monitoring workloads and injury updates

Clubhouse visitors, monitoring workloads and injury updates
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - There were plenty of visitors to Nationals camp today. Former Expos first baseman Andres Galarraga dropped by at the invitation of manager Davey Martinez. Galarraga, who had a 19-year career in the big leagues and twice beat Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, lives in the city the Nats now call their spring home. Martinez hopes he can get Galarraga back for another visit later in camp, maybe even in uniform as an instructor. The two were teammates on the Expos from 1988-91. This...
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Steve Melewski

Week in review: Harsh words exchanged, free agent batters and more

Week in review: Harsh words exchanged, free agent batters and more
In looking back on the last week of stories here and revisting a few, we spent some time discussing the harsh words exchanged recently by the players and owners, looked at some lefty-batting free agents and also looked at the latest PECOTA projections. On Monday, we discussed some recent statements issued, including one by the Major League Baseball Players Assocation and one by prominent agent Brodie Van Wagenen. He said the slow free agent market "feels coordinated" and that the players...
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Steve Melewski

Can the Orioles now take the next step with Schoop?

Can the Orioles now take the next step with Schoop?
The Orioles and one of their top players made news yesterday when the club signed him for the 2018 season. He was already under team control - that we knew - but now we know that second baseman Jonathan Schoop's 2018 salary will be $8.5 million. The two sides avoided arbitration and any ill will such a hearing could have caused. There was already the issue of Schoop missing FanFest and the fact that his absence clearly didn't sit well with fans or the team's management. But on the field, of...
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Mark Zuckerman

New CBA underscores the strong state of baseball today

New CBA underscores the strong state of baseball today
The last time Major League Baseball games were seriously in danger of being canceled due to a work stoppage was on Aug. 30, 2002. After playing the first five months of the season with an expired collective bargaining agreement, the Players' Association voted to go on strike if a new deal couldn't be reached by that day. The specter of a work stoppage was all too real. The players' strike of 1994 was still fresh in everyone's minds. Owners and players had not agreed to any new CBA without...
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