Phillies: “Sliding scale” pay system would undercut numerous players

As MLB owners and players continue to fight over money, the latest proposal really would be an insult to a number of Philadelphia Phillies.

At first, I thought MLB owners had a point. Players couldn’t simply be paid a pro-rated salary in line with whatever percentage of the 2020 season gets played. The owners’ stance made sense, because the lack of fans and all accompanying ticket-related revenue meant that the league wouldn’t be raking in nearly as much money as usual. But then the most recent proposal from the owners came to light, one that introduced a “sliding scale” that would decimate the salaries of most players for this season. As far as it concerns a number of Philadelphia Phillies players, it’s problematic to say the least.

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With the highest-paid players expected to give back larger chunks of their salaries than those making the minimum, or close to it, several prominent Phillies should immediately jump to mind. First up: Bryce Harper, whose $27.5 million salary would nosedive down to $7 million. Obviously, that’s still an amount of money that I can’t even fathom (writing doesn’t pay THAT much), but it’s still pretty ridiculous to take such a cut. The guy was given a big deal, one that he earned in a fair and free market. Now he’s supposed to take an 80% hit on it? Maybe if he only had to work 20% as much or as hard as normal, you could see the argument. But Harper’s already put in a partial spring training, will have to take part in another training camp, and then would be subjected to a condensed season about half the normal length. It’s not the normal 162-game grind, but there’s nothing easy about it. He’s right to feel insulted.

From Harper, we trickle down to less-rich Phillies, but ones who still stand to lose a pretty penny themselves. Zach Wheeler and Jake Arrieta would both clock in around $5 million, which is a crime in and of itself that they’ll be making approximately the same money. Wheeler stands to have maybe the best season of his career as he hits the prime age for pitchers, while Arrieta is so cooked that he wouldn’t even be worth his reduced salary.

Andrew McCutchen would also receive about $5 million, which is a good deal for the Phillies (no wonder the owners floated this plan). And Jean Segura and Didi Gregorius would come in around $4 million or so, because what’s a few hundred thousand dollars among friends? We could do this for the rest of the roster, but you get the point. Phillies ownership, and every other club along with them, is doing their best to get bargain basement deals for this season to make up for the huge losses in revenue.

But in the bigger picture, wouldn’t it be in their best interests to pay the players a fair amount to avoid acrimony in the future? That’s probably too much to ask when we’re dealing with millionaires and billionaires, but baseball is in for a world of hurt if the whole 2020 season gets skipped over money. Yes, it’s a lot of money, but the toll on future attendance and overall fan interest could end up being so great that the owners will wonder why they fought so hard to save a few bucks now when all it did was cost them dearly in the future.

I suppose my understanding of this issue has shifted to the players’ side, because it feels like the owners have gone overboard with their tale of woe. I don’t want to see the entire 2020 season get scrapped, but I know why the players would let it happen. Frankly, I don’t blame them at this point. For Bryce Harper and the rest of the Phils who stand to lose seven or eight figures off their salary, this whole situation is beyond frustrating.