Coronavirus

Having successfully staged live professional ballgames for a month in the midst of a global pandemic, Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League is now preparing for the next step. As CPBLStats.com covers, the league is preparing to welcome fans through the gates.

Taiwan’s CDC, which has overseen one of the world’s most successful responses to the coronavirus, already greenlit a proposal for 250 fans per contest. (Per the Fubon Guardians’ Twitter account.) The CPBL has already sought approval for permission to let a thousand fans through the door as soon as this weekend.

It won’t quite be business as usual, to say the least. The turnstiles won’t be rotating quite as many times as normal. And there will be restrictions on those that show up to see a ballgame in the flesh. Fans will not only have to provide their names and undergo temperature screening on their way in, but will need to maintain social distancing and don masks during the contest.

The CPBL became the first professional baseball league to launch after the coronavirus crisis halted play around the world. And it remains a clear success story, with no indication that play has interfered with efforts to protect the health and welfare of participants or the broader public. It’s also no longer alone in staging ballgames, with the Korea Baseball Organization kicking off play overnight.

Though it’s tempting to interpret these developments as cause for optimism, the sobering reality is that the situation is far different in Taiwan and Korea than in North America. Those countries have only reached the point of staging sports — and, now, allowing fans to congregate — after all but fully stomping out the spread of COVID-19.

MLBPA chief Tony Clark recently discussed the pandemic-driven baseball hiatus with ESPN.com’s Marly Rivera. While specifics remain frustratingly unavailable, it’s important to understand the thinking of the top union official regarding the potential resumption of play.

We’d all love for conditions to permit the 2020 season to begin, but Clark indicates that it remains unclear precisely when and how that might occur. “I don’t know that there is a definitive plan yet,” he says.

Clark acknowledged that “it is a delicate balance” in deciding upon a route back and that “there may never be a perfect time” to move forward. But the union intends to “work alongside the league to find that right spot in time to get us back on the field,” with the hope being that “it is sooner rather than later.”

While we’ve heard chatter over disagreements regarding player salaries in the event of TV-only games, Clark frames things a bit differently — unsurprisingly, given the union’s stance. “Our position is that with respect to player salaries, we’ve had that discussion already,” says Clark. “Our focus now is on health and safety moving forward.”

While the union’s position is that the matter of paychecks is already decided, Clark also seemed to acknowledge a possible need to revisit the matter when details of the 2020 season come into clearer focus.

“We have an agreement in place that speaks to a reduction in player salaries in a season that’s less than 162 games. That agreement is in place. Any further discussion, then the league has the ability to make additional proposals against the backdrop of situations that may have been contemplated in the initial agreement but are different or may be different moving forward, and we have the ability to respond.”

That’s rather obscure — likely by design. But Clark seems to be suggesting that, even if MLB is right that player salaries can be revisited in the event of attendance-free contests, the onus is on the league to show cause for any further reductions.

There’s obviously a lot of public relations posturing in these comments (as with those of MLB officials). After emphasizing the union’s focus on health — which is both a legitimate concern and better ground to stand upon than compensation — Clark noted: “We’ll see whether or to what extent the league is focused on something different.”

Clark acknowledged ongoing conversations regarding the need to “mitigate as much risk as possible” and to address possible liabilities, but it doesn’t sound as if much has been decided. The sides haven’t discussed the next CBA in connection with the 2020 season, he added, which suggests that complicated matter won’t become directly intertwined the uncharted ground currently being navigated.

Needless to say, there are many potential stumbling blocks in the realm of labor relations. But the sides both have huge incentive to facilitate a path back to play and to avoid open conflict over profits. Ultimately, Clark says: “the lines of communication are open, and as long as they are open, there’s an opportunity to work through and try and find common ground despite our differences.”

We’ve heard of a handful of ideas about ways in which MLB could look to bring back games in 2020. Many have involved centralizing teams in a few states, perhaps with temporary league and divisional realignment. MLB’s “preferred plan,” however, is to stage as many games as possible in teams’ current home parks, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Those games would still be without fans, of course, at least at the beginning of the season.

Should play in home stadiums prove feasible, the schedule would be designed to limit travel, Topkin adds. Teams would primarily be pitted against opponents from within one’s division and the other league’s corresponding division. (So, AL East teams would predominantly face division rivals as well as NL East opponents, NL Central teams would see a heavy dose of the AL Central, etc.). Previously considered ideas, including centralizing all thirty teams in Arizona or arranging groups in Arizona, Florida and Texas, are now “less likely” and “being downplayed or dismissed,” Topkin notes.

MLB was already considering staging spring training games at home parks, but orchestrating the regular season from teams’ home bases would be a more significant undertaking. If possible, it would offer some stability the other proposals would not have. Players and their families would be able to live in their teams’ home cities, rather than moving to a central location for a few months. Players would still have to abide by social distancing requirements, but they wouldn’t be quarantined. MLB wouldn’t necessarily have to consider drastic structural realignment, although an expanded postseason would be a possibility, Topkin adds. And even without fans in attendance, there could be some comfort for TV viewers in seeing teams at familiar confines.

Regardless of where and when MLB attempts to return to action, there’d be myriad challenges. Coronavirus testing needs to be available to players and staff. The league needs to have contingency plans in place in case someone involved tests positive. Players would no doubt have to ramp up quickly in an abbreviated spring training 2.0. There remains massive uncertainty.

Optimism is building around the league that some portion of the season can be salvaged, though. It seems the hope is that’ll be possible without needing to gather teams at a few central locations.

Major League Baseball and the Major League Umpires Association have reached an agreement on umpire salaries for the 2020 season, ESPN’s Jesse Rogers reports (via Twitter). The league had reportedly been seeking a pay cut for umpires and was pushing for an agreement to be in place this weekend. Absent an agreement, the umpires would not have been paid until play resumed.

USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that the umpires will see their pay reduced by “about” 30 percent. The umpires union had made an initial offer of a 20 percent reduction, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Rosenthal reported yesterday that the league’s proposal to the umpires included a 35 percent pay reduction (including retroactive prorating of salary that was already paid out prior to the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown) as well as reduced per diems and postseason bonuses. That arrangement didn’t sit well with the umpires union.

Negotiations with the umpires were just one of the countless issues that need to be sorted as the owners, commissioner Rob Manfred and the players association work toward staging a truncated 2020 season that is unlike any we’ve seen in the past (or will see again). Decision-makers are still discussing several scenarios for a return to play and a second training camp. Among the many potential ideas being kicked around are a radical realignment scheme, intrasquad training games at each team’s home park and a potential three-state training setup between Arizona, Texas and Florida. Nothing has been agreed upon or set in place yet, but optimism that a 2020 season will be able to take place has been mounting over the past couple of weeks.

It goes without saying that the 2020 Major League Baseball – if it happens – will be an unusual one. We’ve heard of plenty of out-of-the-box ways for teams to get back on the field if the coronavirus pandemic gets under control, one of the latest being cutting six divisions down to three. But before a potential regular season begins, the players will have to ramp back up with the resumption of spring training.

Players will need about three weeks to ramp back up in camp if spring training restarts. However, it might not take place at its typical sites in Florida and Arizona. Rather, each of the league’s 30 teams could play at their own stadiums, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports. Four team executives informed Nightengale that the plan is under consideration.

One of the main benefits of this idea is that it would save teams money they’d be spending on hotels and per diem at their normal spring facilities. However, as Nightengale notes, a key downside is clubs would only have access to one field as opposed to the six available to them at their training grounds.

Whether this will come to fruition is anyone’s guess. While there has been recent optimism about a season getting underway, it’s going to be an enormous challenge for MLB to pull off, no matter how many different ideas it may have.

In addition to seeking pro-rated salaries for players — and larger reductions if/when games are played without fans in attendance — the league is asking umpires to take a reduction in pay as well, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports. Nightengale indicates that the league is seeking a roughly 35 percent reduction in pay and has informed the umpires that if no agreement can be reached between the two sides, they will not be paid until play resumes. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports that the umpires’ offer included a 20 percent reduction in pay (subscription link). The league is seeking an agreement as soon as this weekend, though that may not be likely.

Per Rosenthal, the umpires union is torn on whether to accept the league’s proposal and has responded with a “hold letter” that would keep negotiations going while the umpires agree not to file a grievance as their May pay is withheld. His piece is rife with specifics on the league’s proposal, although at its base, the league is asking that umpires’ entire salaries be prorated despite the fact that umpires are paid over a 12-month term (unlike players, who are paid only in-season). In essence, the league is seeking to retroactively prorate salary that was paid out to umpires prior to the COVID-19 pandemic by more heavily reducing pay in the remaining months of the year. Umpire per diems and postseason bonuses would be reduced as well. The league would compensate umpires for working a second Spring Training.

Nightengale notes that salaries range from $110K for rookie umpires to $432,800 for the most seasoned of the 76-person group. Postseason bonuses, per diems, an annual $12,000 licensing payment (which has already been paid out), health and retirement benefits further boost earnings. That said, umpires themselves face a lengthy grind to the big leagues while calling games in the minors and (per Rosenthal) top out at earning a $20K salary per year in Triple-A.

The potential unrest between the league and its umpires only serves as the latest reminder that the amount of intricacies that need to be accounted for in a shortened season teeters on innumerable. As with the players, there will be logistical challenges for umpiring crews once this dispute is settled, but the immediate focus is agreeing on finances and the extent of concessions both sides will make.