Trevor Bauer Perfectly Explains the Player’s Issue with their Salary Issues
There is a lot of bickering on the internet these days about things that Blake Snell said, and how guys like Nolan Arenado and Bryce Harper have agreed with his statements. I suppose first we should discuss the actual issue, and those statements.
Snell, a Tampa Bay Rays lefty and a hell of a gamer, recently said this on his Twitch Channel in response to the owner’s proposal of paying a split on MLB revenue for the 2020 COVID-19 shortened season.
“Y’all gotta understand, man, for me to go — for me to take a pay cut is not happening, because the risk is through the roof,” Snell said while answering questions on his Twitch channel. “It’s a shorter season, less pay.
“No, I gotta get my money. I’m not playing unless I get mine, OK? And that’s just the way it is for me. Like, I’m sorry you guys think differently, but the risk is way the hell higher and the amount of money I’m making is way lower. Why would I think about doing that?”
At face level, those comments don’t look great. But, when you add the context of what he is talking about, then the picture starts to get clearer.
Back in March, MLB and the MLBPA agreed to a prorated salary for the 2020 season. Meaning, if there is no baseball in 2020, NO PLAYER would be paid. If they played half a season, well, then the players would get paid half their salaries. Fair is fair, right?
Well, apparently that is wrong. The owners, in their proposal to restart baseball amid the pandemic, offered a 50-50 revenue split with the players for the 2020 season. The issue is, baseball has ZERO idea what the revenue will be in 2020. We know their plan has no fans in the stands. So there is no ticket revenue coming in. That leaves TV deals, as well as other marketing money they typically pull in.
Now, overall TV revenue will be down, but teams can pencil in what that looks like. If they were to earn $100 million over a 162-game season, an 82-game season should be about half. From a marketing and sponsorship perspective, they have no real idea of what could be coming in.
With quarantines across the country, nonessential shutdowns, companies have shifted their marketing dollars. United Airlines isn’t going to run as many ads when they have reduced their flights by like 2/3rds. So, the players have no idea what a 50-50 revenue split even looks like. But further, at no point in baseball’s history has player salary been tied to revenue – and the owners have made certain of that.
Here is MLB’s revenue since the 2001 season (2019 isn’t officially listed yet, but it has been reported as just over $10 billion).
In each of those seasons, baseball set a new record for revenue. Those dollars are in the billions by the way, and conveniently for baseball ownership, player salaries have not increased at this same rate. In fact, players earn less of the total baseball dollar today than they did in the 2000 season. They earn less today, with regard to total revenue, than they have ever earned.
So, for the owners to now come in and ask the players to basically accept a blind deal, while there is a risk to theirs, and their family’s health, is a pretty crappy thing for them to do.
Here is Cincinnati Reds pitcher, Trevor Bauer’s explanation.
This is not your fault, but it’s not the client’s fault either, so you mutually agree that you will accept 50k instead of 100k as a show of good faith. A new contract is signed. Then the client realizes they won’t be able to rent as many of their apartments as they originally 2)
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) May 15, 2020
property? You have done the same quality work, and even worked with the client to reflect doing less overall work. Is it fair for the client to now want you, as the painter, to share the burden of not being able to rent the apartments? Are your services worth less because 4)
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) May 15, 2020
the client cannot rent the apartments? 5)
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) May 15, 2020
And even with the explanation, there are still those out there that think it is justified to tell another man what he should and should not accept for compensation.
Correct except players ALREADY agreed on pay. Now owners want more concessions. https://t.co/iFKcHTfQhi
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) May 15, 2020
We’ve already agreed to take prorated salary per the number of games we play. We aren’t asking to be paid for games we’re not playing.
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) May 15, 2020
This is one that gets me. I try to have a rather good understanding of a topic before I enter it. I don’t like speaking from the matter of opinion on things, I find facts and speak to the facts. But, since social media gave everyone a voice, and if it is wrong or right, it seems everyone will voice their opinion regardless if they know what they’re talking about or not.
Great point. I can’t either. All I’m trying to do is get paid the agreed upon amount for the agreed upon work.
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) May 15, 2020
There are some out there that do understand it.
No one is asking for full salary. Just that the current agreement is honored…prorated pay per games played.
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) May 15, 2020
Now, I understand that with so many people being forced into unemployment because of the pandemic, this isn’t a favorable fight for a player to have. At the end of the day, they are fighting for millions when someone on unemployment is getting $600 a week. It can come off as being tone-deaf, but the owners purposely leaked this to the media because they knew the public will cry out against the players. It worked, and the general fan has been tricked in the process.
Netflix has a new show, Trial by Media. Its premise is, win the battle of public opinion. Create the story that the people will relate to or take to heart, and then it doesn’t matter if you are right or wrong, innocent or guilty, because you’ve already won.
The players will come back to some renegotiated salary terms, or there will be no baseball in 2020, and fans will point their fingers at the players. It would be wrongful, but they will. You likely won’t read this or call it nonsense, but it’s based in fact. It is what is happening. And it will suck that fans will criticize the players for not bending over when it is really an over-reach by ownership.
