Players opting out of 2020 season

[UpstateNYfan]

13 hours ago, survivedc said:

Why would a large number of the high dollar guys not play? My understanding is players get a year of service time whether they play or not.

Oh, I don't know high dollar guys with multiple years of earnings, will invested...enough for multiple lifetimes decide not to play...could it be that this is a cut and paste season, 60 games, made up divisions, basically ST exhibitions...3 to 4 months quarantined with teammates (as I understand it), away from family, none of the going out with teammates to bars and eateries, none of the camaraderie with teams in the clubhouse, dugouts, bullpens....no fans, a pretty crappy working environment IMO...for us this is a game, when you are at that stage of your career it is a business..the joy of the game maybe teammate interaction and not as much the game.

[Philip]

4 hours ago, backwardsk said:

He also gave 200k+ to pay the Dodgers minor leaguers.

Think about that for a second. The entire dodger minor-league system cost only $200,000, yet the owners refused to step up. 

[BohKnowsBmore]

2 minutes ago, Philip said:

Think about that for a second. The entire dodger minor-league system cost only $200,000, yet the owners refused to step up. 

I don’t think that’s possibly true. That’s 20 guys making $10k for the whole year. The math doesn’t work at all. 

[Philip]

16 hours ago, survivedc said:

Why would a large number of the high dollar guys not play? My understanding is players get a year of service time whether they play or not.

 Well, the point has been made already, so this is a discussion best retired, but I thought of a response to your comment about service time.

A free agent who has signed a high dollar contract can easily sacrifice a partial year of that contract, so a year of service would not detrimentally affect him.  Yes, he is losing his prorated salary for this season, but he’s already got his money, so who cares. The kids, on the other hand, would benefit, because a year of service time moves each player closer to free agency and even if they play all 60 games this year, there will be less wear and tear on their bodies, so they could conceivably make extra money when they sign those wonderful free agent contracts.

So I think in the long run, service time issues will be irrelevant for the older players and a benefit to the younger ones.

[Philip]

12 minutes ago, BohKnowsBmore said:

I don’t think that’s possibly true. That’s 20 guys making $10k for the whole year. The math doesn’t work at all. 

Yes, you’re correct, I wonder what the details are? The point that the owners are impossibly cheap remains valid, however.

[Frobby]

18 minutes ago, Philip said:

Think about that for a second. The entire dodger minor-league system cost only $200,000, yet the owners refused to step up. 

 

14 minutes ago, BohKnowsBmore said:

I don’t think that’s possibly true. That’s 20 guys making $10k for the whole year. The math doesn’t work at all. 

Definitely not enough to pay all the MiL salaries.    Still, an incredible gesture.   

[atomic]

4 hours ago, Frobby said:

My guess is that most players will feel this is a personal decision that each player must make for himself, and that they won’t hold any hard feelings against those who made a different decision than they did.    

If only Aubrey Huff was still playing, I am sure he would have something insightful to say about it.

[BohKnowsBmore]

3 hours ago, Frobby said:

 

Definitely not enough to pay all the MiL salaries.    Still, an incredible gesture.   

Oh absolutely. To be clear, I wasn't denigrating the gesture, any amount of money would be generous. Was just trying to address that there's no way that's all the org was paying their minor leaguers in total.

[survivedc]

7 hours ago, Philip said:

 Well, the point has been made already, so this is a discussion best retired, but I thought of a response to your comment about service time.

A free agent who has signed a high dollar contract can easily sacrifice a partial year of that contract, so a year of service would not detrimentally affect him.  Yes, he is losing his prorated salary for this season, but he’s already got his money, so who cares. The kids, on the other hand, would benefit, because a year of service time moves each player closer to free agency and even if they play all 60 games this year, there will be less wear and tear on their bodies, so they could conceivably make extra money when they sign those wonderful free agent contracts.

So I think in the long run, service time issues will be irrelevant for the older players and a benefit to the younger ones.

You get a year of service time whether you play or not.

Price is the only big dollar name to bow out thus far and I don’t expect he will start a trend.

[survivedc]

10 hours ago, UpstateNYfan said:

Oh, I don't know high dollar guys with multiple years of earnings, will invested...enough for multiple lifetimes decide not to play...could it be that this is a cut and paste season, 60 games, made up divisions, basically ST exhibitions...3 to 4 months quarantined with teammates (as I understand it), away from family, none of the going out with teammates to bars and eateries, none of the camaraderie with teams in the clubhouse, dugouts, bullpens....no fans, a pretty crappy working environment IMO...for us this is a game, when you are at that stage of your career it is a business..the joy of the game maybe teammate interaction and not as much the game.

Sounds like you don’t understand it.

MLB hasn’t introduced a bubble for teams and these will be the same divisions as any other year. 

FTR, I think some level of the social distancing will dissipate as the season goes on. When Euro soccer came back they talked a lot about keeping players apart and no touching etc and if you watch a game now most of that has gone away. 

[backwardsk]

22 minutes ago, survivedc said:

You get a year of service time whether you play or not.

Price is the only big dollar name to bow out thus far and I don’t expect he will start a trend.

$15M (Desmond/Leake) is still big money these days. No?

[survivedc]

10 minutes ago, backwardsk said:

$15M (Desmond/Leake) is still big money these days. No?

Good for 82nd highest in the league. Big to you and me, not all that big to baseball.

[Philip]

36 minutes ago, survivedc said:

You get a year of service time whether you play or not.

Price is the only big dollar name to bow out thus far and I don’t expect he will start a trend.

Well, the point remains valid, but we will see how many guys play or don’t.

Bear in mind that we haven’t started playing yet, and there’s still a lot of days between now and then.

[backwardsk]

5 minutes ago, survivedc said:

Good for 82nd highest in the league. Big to you and me, not all that big to baseball.

That’s right at the cusp of the 90th percentile.  Half of the guys who opted out are there.  (Last I saw was 6, could be more now)

[Redskins Rick]

14 hours ago, Frobby said:

 

Definitely not enough to pay all the MiL salaries.    Still, an incredible gesture.   

I believe he capped it at 10K per person, allows them to legally skip taxes on it.

I was told the threshold was changed recently to 15K per year, at least thats my tax man told me last month.