YANKEES PLAYERS WILL HAVE TO TAKE A PAYCUT TO PLAY AGAIN

Before COVID-19 hit, the Yankees were set to dominate the 2020 season as one of the favorites to make it to the World Series. Now we don't know when baseball is going to start or if it will ever start. We just know that there are plans being put in place to try and make it happen.

The MLB and the MLBPA have put together a 67-page health proposal that covers limiting the number of players in a dugout to no spitting being allowed. Another issue being faced is pay cuts.

Everyone involved with baseball is losing money this season: owners, players, businesses, employees, etc... This is turning out to be hard to negotiate as players and owners can't agree on what they should get paid. I can understand wanting to get paid for your job, but most of these players would still be getting millions of dollars for only playing a part of the season.

Here are what the players would make after the pay cut:

• Gerrit Cole would go from making $36M to $8M
• Giancarlo Stanton: $26M to $6M
• Masahiro Tanaka: $23M to $5.5M
• JA Happ: $17M to $4.5M
• Aroldis Chapman: $16M to $4.25M
• Zack Britton: $13M to $3.5M
• DJ LeMahieu: $12M to $3.4M
• Aaron Hicks: $10.7M
• Luis Severino: $10.5M to $3M
• Brett Gardner: $10M to $2.95M
• Adam Ottavino: $8.8M to $2.7M
• Aaron Judge: $8.5M to $2.5M
• Gary Sanchez: $5M to $1.64M

These players will be making less than a quarter on their original agreement, yet are only playing on a proposed 82 game slate. On the other hand, these players are now risking a lot more. They are risking getting sick and have to stay away from their families in order to play. Players are most likely going to get the virus between being in the clubhouse, buses, and planes where social distancing will be difficult.

The league has already determined that if a player does test positive, they will not shut down the team unless it is a larger percentage of the team that also test positive. The player will then be allowed to rejoin the team after testing negative twice in a 24-hour period, rather than quarantining for 2 weeks.

What do you think? Is the pay cut fair with of the risk of COVID?

--Missy O'Rourke
BYB Contributor
Twitter: @missy_orourke