Even Drellich of The Athletic reports that the Boston Red Sox are cutting the pay of team employees. Those cuts, which began to be communicated last night, apply to all employees making $50,000 or more. They are tiered cuts, with people making $50-99,000 seeing salary cut by 20%, those making $100k-$499,000 seeing $25% cuts and those making $500,000 or more getting 30% cuts.
Drellich reported that a Red Sox employee told him that “people are livid” over the fact that those making $100K are being treated the same way as those making $500K. And, yes, that does seem to be a pretty wide spread for similar pay cuts. One would think that a team with as many analytically-oriented people on staff could perhaps break things down a bit more granularly.
As we noted yesterday, The Kansas City Royals, who are not as financially successful as the Boston Red Sox, have not furloughed employees or cut pay as a result of baseball’s shutdown in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Perhaps someone in Boston could call the Royals and ask them how they managed that.
RIP to Dolores “Dolly” Brumfield White, who was the Joe Nuxhall of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She started as a 15-year-old in the AAGPBL and spent seven seasons in the league. Her death was announced on May 29 — she had just celebrated her 88th birthday three days prior. White played for the […]
Bradley Beal lights up when the rumor mill churns out his name. The Washington Wizards guard addressed trade rumors linking him to the Brooklyn Nets on Friday, telling ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan he considers interest in his services as a “sign of respect.” Beal is the NBA’s second-leading scorer, averaging 30.5 points per game in 2019-20,…
Sharks forward Evander Kane on Friday called on high profile athletes, especially white superstars in the NHL and other team sports, to speak out about the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis earlier this week and other racial injustices that have happened in the past. “We need so many more athletes that don’t look like…
NBA players will struggle to put their best feet forward if they return to duty amid the fiercest competition. Boston Celtics forward Gordon Hayward insisted as much Wednesday in an interview with the Boston Herald’s Mark Murphy when he warned of sloppy games and a rash of injuries if the NBA goes straight to the…
Thursday was an undeniably dark day in the sport of baseball. Teams across the sport released hundreds of minor leaguers, transactions largely meant to cut costs with the 2020 baseball season hanging in the balance amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the battle brewing between MLB’s owners and players. But in that darkness came a bright…
Thursday was an undeniably dark day in the sport of baseball. Teams across the sport released hundreds of minor leaguers, transactions largely meant to cut costs with the 2020 baseball season hanging in the balance amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the battle brewing between MLB’s owners and players. But in that darkness came a bright spot, thanks to one of the game’s most recognizable players. Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher David Price is paying each minor leaguer in the Dodgers’ system $1,000 of his own money during the month of June, baseball writer Francys Romero reported Thursday night, citing sources. What makes the incredible gesture even better, as Romero himself notes, is Price has yet to play a regular-season game with the Dodgers after LA acquired the former Cy Young Award winner in an offseason blockbuster trade with the Boston Red Sox. One of Price’s managers in Boston, ex-Sox skipper Alex Cora, commended his former ace with a tweet Friday morning. David does it again, his best pitch when it counts. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 @DAVIDprice24. pic.twitter.com/2M3iWbbNlJ
Major League Soccer teams may begin to use outdoor team training fields for voluntary small group training sessions, the league announced this week, with the usual safety measures still in place. Read More
[nesn_embed service=dailymotion src=”https://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x7u6bs6?autoplay=1″ width=”640″ height=”360″] The NBA could return soon, but maybe not with all of its teams. Half the league’s general managers wanted to go straight to the playoffs, like the NHL, according to The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor. The other half voted to re-seed the playoffs 1-16 without conference affiliation. 75 percent of GMs […]
Part of San Francisco’s new multi-phase plan to reopen the city announced on Thursday means the Warriors could return to Chase Center to practice as soon as June 15. But Phase 2B of Mayor London Breed’s strategy, which allows “sports with no fans” in San Francisco in two weeks, also could soon be rendered meaningless…
The last seven months have been brutal for Minor League Baseball. In November, before the coronavirus pandemic caused many businesses to shut down, Major League Baseball was considering eliminating over one-quarter of their minor league teams. The idea received blowback, including condemnation from sitting members of Congress. Then the pandemic happened and MLB shut down operations for the time being. While MLB works on getting some semblance of a 2020 season going, there will be no minor league season. MLB will get to eliminate 40-plus minor league teams after all, aided in part by the coronavirus.
The baseball shutdown has been tough on minor leaguers, who are only paid — and severely underpaid, at that — during the regular season. They are not paid during spring training or offseason. Thankfully, MLB stepped up and agreed to pay minor leaguers $400 per week through May 31. That day is fast approaching. The Athletics announced they will not be paying their minor leaguers after May 31. The Rangers, Padres, White Sox, Braves, Mariners, Marlins, Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Mets and Astros announced they will continue their players at least through the end of June. The Marlins, Padres, and Mariners will pay theirs through the end of August.
As part of the March agreement in which MLB ownership and the MLB Players Association agreed on prorated salaries for the 2020 season, if there is one, the 2020 draft was shortened to five rounds. The 2021 could be only 20 rounds. Also part of the agreement, teams can sign an unlimited amount of undrafted players for $20,000, a significant boon for ownership considering sixth-round bonus slots last year ranged from $237,000 to $301,600.
Sadly, there has been more minor league carnage. Many teams have been releasing minor league players recently: the Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Rays, Nationals, Mets, Brewers, Mariners, Orioles, and Reds are who we know of so far, thanks to reporting from Jon Heyman and Robert Murray. Veteran outfielder Carlos González made the most headlines, as he was released from his minor league contract with the Mariners today. An agent Heyman spoke with called the whole thing “literally a war zone out there.” It’s worth noting that some of these releases likely would’ve happened at the end of spring training.
The Athletic’s Emily Waldon spoke to another agent who was more colorful about the issue. He said, “So, they can claim they’re still paying guys, but actually threw a third of the system overboard to save what? Less than 300k?” The agent added, “Also, why aren’t the players and leagues webpages pages updated with the releases? So no one can see the carnage? Don’t need to clear 50+ spots before a five-round draft.”
The shortened draft is going to cause a lot of players who otherwise would’ve been picked today to play for junior colleges. Some will give up on their baseball dream altogether. Eliminating more than 40 minor league teams — cutting thousands of baseball jobs in the process — will cause many to pick other lines of work. Cutting players in the middle of a pandemic will have the same effect. Long-term, why would anyone choose to chase a baseball dream? It was a tough road before, but it will be even tougher going forward. Two-sport star Kyler Murray chose to pursue a career in the NFL rather than MLB; it’s easy to see younger kids seeing a more realistic and lucrative road in other sports as well. The owners get to save a negligible amount of money in the short-term, but the popularity of the sport is going to hurt immensely from these self-inflicted austerity measures.
As the coronavirus pandemic has closed gyms across the country, people have gotten pretty creative with their home workouts. That includes the Boston Celtics, center Enes Kanter revealed on FS1’s “First Things First,” and it’s led him to believe that banner number 18 is in store because of it. “Just because we still don’t know…
The view from left field 