Elephant Rumblings: Players won’t budge on topic of further pay cuts for 2020 season

Good morning afternoon, Athletics Nation! (Sorry, we’ll get back to early morning on the Rumblings ASAP.)

The drama continues in the negotiations between MLB and the players union, regarding the economics of a 2020 season affected by the coronavirus pandemic. When we left off yesterday, the league had sent a proposal to the MLBPA that included heavy salary cuts beyond the ones already agreed to in March, and the players were left “very disappointed” by the offer, perhaps even “livid.”

The union responded on Wednesday, and as expected they were not happy with the league’s proposal. Max Scherzer explained their stance in a tweet:

After discussing the latest developments with the rest of the players there’s no reason to engage with MLB in any further compensation reductions. We have previously negotiated a pay cut in the version of prorated salaries, and there’s no justification to accept a 2nd pay cut based upon the current information the union has received. I’m glad to hear other players voicing the same viewpoint and believe MLB’s economic strategy would completely change if all documentation were to become public information.

The players are expected to offer a counter-proposal, report Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic (click the link below in the MLB News section for the full story). They won’t budge on the topic of receiving their full prorated salaries, but they might suggest playing more than the currently proposed 82 games in order to earn as much of their salaries as possible.

The problem with that idea, of course, is that the league insists that teams will lose money for each game without fans, claiming that more games doesn’t necessarily mean more revenue. But even then, as Scherzer notes, the players want to see some documentation from the league to prove those claims are actually true.

As for how many regular season games the players might consider proposing, Rosenthal and Drellich suggest “the 100-game range,” while Joel Sherman of the New York Post says it could be as many as 110 games.

Will they figure things out and bridge this gap? Stay tuned to find out! But hey, at least they’re talking.

A’s Coverage:

• Ostler: For bad-news A’s, Howard Terminal ballpark timeline in danger ($)
• Hickey: Athletics Owner John Fisher’s Decision to not Pay Minor Leaguers May Have Wide Impact
• Hickey: What Will MLB Do With Players Who Opt Not to Play During Time of Pandemic?
• Hall: Oakland A’s will stop paying minor leaguers at end of May

MLB News & Interest:

• Rosenthal and Drellich: Players Association plans to propose longer season, insist on full prorated salaries ($$$)
• Passan: Sources: MLBPA to counter MLB proposal with more games, full prorated salaries
• Davidoff: Max Scherzer rips MLB: Players won’t negotiate ‘second pay cut’
• Adams (roundup): Latest On Furloughs, Pay Cuts Among MLB Clubs
• Adams (roundup): Mariners Release Carlos Gonzalez (Jon Heyman news break)
• Callis: New mock Draft: Picking all 29 first-rounders
• MLB Pipeline: Most hyped RHP prospects of the past 20 years
• Randhawa: 10 ROY winners who didn’t turn into superstars
• Byrne: The Best Top 10 Pick Of 2012
• MLB: Here’s a list of our all-time favorite baseball books
• Today in Baseball History

Best of Twitter:

Good news on the progress of A’s minor league manager Webster Garrison, battling coronavirus

At least the A’s have gotten one thing right in all this

Click this tweet to read the full thread (six tweets total)

Bold strategy Cotton, let’s see if it pays off for them

?!?!?!