Colorado Rockies: MLB owners proposal might give a big paycut to high salary players

MLB’s new proposal would only pay players a percentage of their prorated salary and it may impact some Colorado Rockies.

The Colorado Rockies may have some players impacted by MLB’s new proposal to have high-salaried players take a significant cut to their salaries in order to keep the salaries closer to regular salaries for lower played players. Jon Heyman of MLB Network was one of the reporters that reported this on Twitter.

As Heyman reported in a subsequent tweet, the exact percentages aren’t known but some of the highest played players may only make “20-30 percent” of their full salary.

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One of the players that would fall into that category is Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado as he was slated to make $35 million for the 2020 season. If he were to only make 20 to 30 percent of that, he would make somewhere between $7 and $10.5 million.

The Rockies have three more players that were slated to make more than $10 million in 2020 as Charlie Blackmon, Wade Davis, and Ian Desmond were supposed to make $21.5 million, $17 million, and $15 million. The Rockies also have three more players between $9 and $10 million, including Jake McGee, Trevor Story, and Bryan Shaw.

This deal would have to be agreed upon by the MLBPA and, as Jeff Passan of ESPN reported that the players “bristled” at the proposal and Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post noted that some players are “ticked off” and he even reported that one agent said that “the new proposal is a non-starter.”

If it’s a “non-starter,” and the proposal doesn’t come to fruition, the two sides will have to go back to the drawing board. Meanwhile, the longer it takes them to strike a deal, it will be harder to get in as many games as possible (like an 81 or 100-game schedule).

Hopefully, the two sides can put aside their differences aside and come to an agreement on a safe return to playing games, perhaps as soon as next month.