SI's Bri Amaranthus and Chris Halicke discuss the negotiations between MLB and the players union over a proposal to get the season underway.
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00:00 Is MLB going to be the first American sport to return since the coronavirus-induced halt of the sports world?
00:08 An early July return is on the table, but it's going to come down to dollars and cents.
00:13 Chris, are you optimistic?
00:15 There's a lot of reason for optimism right now.
00:18 However, there's a stick in the mud that could possibly get in the way of baseball being played in 2020, and that is player salaries.
00:25 The two sides already agreed back in March for $170 million given from MLB to the players to divvy up.
00:33 Just in case a season was canceled, they had some sort of income.
00:36 But if a season was going to be played, it would act as an advance on their salaries, and whatever shortened season there would be,
00:43 those player salaries would be prorated for the amount of games that they play.
00:47 And in exchange, MLB was willing to give a full year of service time.
00:52 So everything's all hunky-dory, right?
00:54 Well, not necessarily.
00:56 As MLB is looking to get the season started, which obviously is all pending government and public health official approval,
01:04 as they're looking to get the season started, they're discussing asking players to take further pay reductions
01:11 or buy into some sort of revenue-sharing plan.
01:14 And Players' Union Chief Tony Clark has pretty much said players aren't taking a pay cut.
01:20 Obviously, the last thing baseball needs is for this to turn into another 1994 strike type of situation,
01:27 which ended up canceling the World Series that year, canceled the rest of the season.
01:32 If baseball has an opportunity to play, the two sides need to come to an agreement.
01:36 Because if they don't, and every other sport is able to get underway somehow,
01:40 and baseball can't because they're arguing over money, it's going to hurt the sport terribly.
01:45 So hopefully the two sides can come to some sort of agreement that makes both sides happy.
01:51 But we'll know more as the week develops just where both sides are at exactly.
01:57 way.
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