Major League Baseball and the Players Association continue to have back-and-forth negotiations, but the clock is ticking toward the "soft deadline" if the goal is still to resume spring training around June 10.
Pedro Martinez, the Hall-of-Famer who pitched four seasons with the Mets in the mid-2000s, is hopeful that both sides can find a middle ground on some of their differences, particularly when it comes to figuring out players' pay for a shortened season with no fans, so that the game can offer some solace for the fans at home.
"I'm hoping that both sides stop thinking about their own good to start thinking about the fans," Martinez said during an interview with Mike Tirico on NBC Sports' Lunch Talk Live. "I think this is the perfect time to have their baseball teams out there to have the people try to forget about a little bit what's going on.
"It's not only the [pandemic], it's everything that's going on. People need to something to actually do and find a way to relax. I hope that the Players Association and MLB realize how important it is to bring some kind of relief to the people."
Martinez, who won 32 games as a Met while pitching to a 3.88 ERA, described the economic part of the game as "dirty," while saying that both sides should be willing to come to some sort of compromise.
"The economics, which is the dark part of the baseball … the business part of baseball is dirty. It's dark," Martinez said. "And I hope they take into consideration who pays our salaries, what the people do for us, how important the people are, and at least bend your arm a little bit to try to find a middle ground for the negotiations.
"Let's not be selfish about it. Let's think about the fans. Let's think about the families at home that want to at least watch a baseball game and distract themselves from all the things that are going on."
SNY's Andy Martino recently outlined what a potential agreement could look like, with players taking a slight pay cut from their March 26 pro-rated agreement while playing somewhere around 70-80 games.
Martino has also reported that even if the league and the players can't come to a new deal, the March agreement allows commissioner Rob Manfred to begin the season without an additional negotiation, provided that teams pay their players the full prorated salaries. In this case, the season would likely be somewhere in the range of 50 games.
Video: What are the win percentage odds in the NL East?
Sports - Latest - Google News
June 03, 2020 at 03:11AM
https://ift.tt/2XpFOg0
Pedro Martinez hopes MLB, players can agree to 2020 season for the fans: 'The business part of baseball is dirty' - SNY.tv
Sports - Latest - Google News
https://ift.tt/2Mbsnt7
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Pedro Martinez hopes MLB, players can agree to 2020 season for the fans: 'The business part of baseball is dirty' - SNY.tv"
Post a Comment