At 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 1, the collective bargaining agreement between the Major League Baseball Players Association and the MLB expired. Two minutes later, at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 2, the MLB informed players they were locked out. It is the sport’s first work stoppage since the infamous players’ strike that stretched from 1994 to 1995.
For a profession in which the average salary for a player is $4.17 million, this is just a bad look.
Both sides are wrong to allow this to happen given the state of the world. People have lost their businesses, their jobs, even their family members. A battle between millionaires and billionaires arguing over how many more millions each side can get is unsightly.
The players feel that they are losing salary and not getting enough money. Yes, a group of people who average over $4 million, for playing a sport, are arguing that they are not getting paid enough.
Particularly, the players feel some veterans’ salaries have declined with the emergence of analytics in front offices, according to ESPN. Their argument is that “fewer and fewer second- and third-tier players are getting paid when they finally become free agents after six years of major league service time.” Essentially, the players would like to make more money at younger ages. The owners obviously disagree.
Regardless of which side you support, both look inherently greedy to do this in the middle of the pandemic. Consider the words of Blake Snell. As the world was on fire in 2020, Snell, who was in the middle of a five-year, $50 million contract, stated that a shortened season with a prorated reduction of his $7 million salary was “just not worth it.”
“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, it’s a shorter season, less pay,” Snell said at the time.
“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? Like you know, I’m just, I’m sorry,” Snell said.
Baseball is a dying sport. TV ratings continue to decline, and fewer youngsters are playing little league. The current generation of greedy players is only helping the sport die faster.
