Sources: Players balk at MLB’s pay-cut proposal

Major League Baseball has proposed cutting the salaries of the highest-paid players in baseball, with the lowest-paid players taking lesser cuts from their full prorated shares, in its first economic proposal to the MLB Players Association, sources familiar with the situation told ESPN.

The long-awaited plan, which was delivered to the union Tuesday afternoon, proposes that high-salaried players take significant reductions to what they would be paid during a prospective season, according to sources.

Sources said the highest-paid players would receive perhaps less than 40% of their full season salaries. For example, a player making $35 million in 2020 would make $7.8 million. A player making $10 million would make $2.9 million, and a player earning $1 million would receive $434,000 under the league’s plan. A player making the MLB minimum, $563,500, would earn $262,000 in 2020. Sixty-five percent of all major league players make less than $1 million.

As word of the proposal spread, players bristled at the notion of taking further pay reductions — particularly ones that would affect the highest-paid players — after a March agreement that they believe guarantees them a full prorated share of their salaries. Under that deal, players would receive slightly more than 50% of their agreed-upon salary over an 82-game season.

MLB has disputed that agreement, believing that the language calls for a good-faith negotiation if games start without fans in the stands, which they would in early July with a deal.

Tuesday’s proposal calls for a sliding scale, as USA Today first reported, that would mirror the pay cuts in some organizations, in which the highest-paid employees have taken greater pay reductions, according to sources.