MLBPA 'resoundingly' rejects additional salary reductions

The Major League Baseball Players Association rejected the idea of any further salary reductions after a meeting between the association's executive board and several players on Thursday.

"In this time of unprecedented suffering at home and abroad, players want nothing more than to get back to work and provide baseball fans with the game we all love. But we cannot do this alone," MLBPA executive director Tony Clark said in a statement.

"Earlier this week, Major League Baseball communicated its intention to schedule a dramatically shortened 2020 season unless players negotiate salary concessions," the statement continued. "The concessions being sought are in addition to billions in player salary reductions that have already been agreed upon.

Clark adds that the league's demand for additional concessions was "resoundingly rejected."

The union's decision comes one day after Major League Baseball reportedly turned down a 114-game proposal for the 2020 season from the MLBPA.

St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Andrew Miller, a member of the MLBPA's executive subcommittee, affirmed the players' intention to play as soon as possible, but not under the league's demands.

"We want to play. We always have," Miller told The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich. "We also won't lose sight of our principles and rights. Players are engaged like I've never seen before. Every day through this each of those factors is reinforced. We hope to be on the field as soon as possible."

A March agreement between the league and the players' union appears to have given Rob Manfred the power to set the number of games that will be played in a shortened season, according to Rosenthal and Drellich.

Unless the players agree to more cuts, the commissioner and team owners are prepared to move forward with a 50-plus game campaign to save themselves from dramatic financial losses, Rosenthal and Drellich add.

The two sides have been negotiating the league's potential return since the coronavirus pandemic shut it down in March.