Morning news bullets: May 27, 2020

We put out a new episode of the podcast this morning, but due to the nature of podcasting, our recording schedule and the 24-hour news cycle, plenty of news has happened since we put together the episode. To get you caught up on everything you need to know, here are some morning news bullets. 

MLBPA not happy with MLB's proposal

The MLB owners gave the players union their first real economic proposal yesterday, and suffice it to say the players are not happy. After weeks of rumors that the owners wanted revenue sharing, the plan they submitted includes the highest-paid players taking the most significant pay cuts. 

See these tweets from ESPN's Jeff Passan for an explanation on how that would be put into effect. 

Seen another way: 82-game prorated salaries vs. MLB's proposal

Full Proposal
prorated

$285K $262K
$506K $434K
$1.01M $736K
$2.53M $1.64M
$5.06M $2.95M
$7.59M $4.05M
$10.1M $5.15M
$12.7M $6.05M
$15.2M $6.95M
$17.7M $7.84M

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 26, 2020

Multiple reporters on Twitter have said that the players are not happy with this idea, with the New York Post's Joel Sherman saying "MLBPA sees what MLB offered today as massive paycuts on top of the half-of-year pay lost already. The union is discouraged by the offer."

Multiple reporters also mentioned that this is only the first proposal in a week full of negotiations, so fans shouldn't lost all hope yet. 

Oakland A's to stop paying Minor Leaguers

As if the reduced paycuts suggested by the owners aren't bad enough, the Oakland A's have decided to completely stop paying their Minor League players, according to an email sent out by A's general manager David Forst.

Here is the email David Forst sent to players today: https://t.co/rwHqiAeKla pic.twitter.com/rEZK2RC1eZ

— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) May 27, 2020

In addition to the announcement that A's minor leaguers will no longer be paid, the email also says that they are still under contract with the team and are not permitted to perform baseball services for any other club. The whole thing is disgraceful, but that last part really drives it home. The A's will have a tough time coming back from this from a PR standpoint. 

CPBL attendance limits to be lifted

The CPBL has been allowing fans at games for weeks now, starting with 1,000 fans per game and working up to 2,000 fans. Soon, teams will be allowed to have full attendance at games.

According to CPBL Stats on Twitter, the Taiwan CDC will lift gathering limitations on June 7. Taiwan has had 441 cases of COVID-19 with 416 recoveries and seven deaths. The country has gone 44 days with no new cases.

This is great news for the CPBL and the game of baseball, as it is another step back towards normality.