Mariners Moose Tracks, 5/27/20: Ichiro, The Oakland A’s, and MLB Negotiations

A bunch of news came out yesterday regarding the start to the season — most of it bad.

By Anders Jorstad@AndersJorstad May 27, 2020, 7:00am PDT

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Seattle Mariners Spring Training

Good morning folks! Here’s what you need to start your Wednesday morning.

In Mariners news...

Corey Brock at The Athletic wonders what the Mariners roster could look like with a taxi squad included. ($)
Andrew Baggerly at The Athletic wrote about the clash between Ichiro and Ryan Vogelsong. ($)
The Mariners officially reopened their spring training facilities to a limited amount of players yesterday.

Around the league...

Some really tough news for A’s minor leaguers yesterday...

The Oakland A's informed minor league players today that they would not continue paying them $400 a week after the end of the month, sources familiar with the situation told ESPN.

Other decisions from organizations should arrive in the coming days. A bad sign to start, though.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 27, 2020

Just some rough math. Say there are 200 players in a minor league system. Paying each $400/week for July, July and August is $5,200 per player. To pay every minor leaguer would have cost the Oakland A's a hair over $1 million.

Owner John Fisher is worth an estimated $2 billion.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 27, 2020

It’s not just the A’s players either.

Several Oakland #A's area scouts say they have been informed they will be furloughed after the amateur draft, beginning June 16 through Oct. 31.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) May 26, 2020

A shrewd lawyer could, and possibly will, make this case.

If owners refuse to pay their minor leaguers, those players should have the option to declare themselves free agents.
— Levi Weaver (@ThreeTwoEephus) May 27, 2020

Michael Baumann at The Ringer looks at the health conditions surrounding the proposed reopening of baseball.
Matt Monagan tells the story of Manny Ramirez’s prodigious high school career.
The two sides seem pretty far apart in negotiations over the start of a season still.

The MLBPA is very disappointed with MLB’s economic proposal today, source tells me and @Ken_Rosenthal, calling additional cuts proposed “massive." League offered to share more playoff revenue, but on balance, those dollars are small compared to what players give up, PA believes.
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) May 26, 2020

And this explains some of the outrage on the players’ side.

Potential salary cuts in MLB plan, sources tell @JesseRogersESPN and me:

Full-year Proposal

$563.5K $262K
$1M $434K
$2M $736K
$5M $1.64M
$10M $2.95M
$15M $4.05M
$20M $5.15M
$25M $6.05M
$30M $6.95M
$35M $7.84M
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 26, 2020

David Schoenfield remembers the 10 biggest MLB draft busts of the previous decade.

Anders’ picks...

For all of you Drake & Josh fans out there...

Drake Bell did the wipe it down challenge on TikTok. I am living for this. pic.twitter.com/HFpidmqONW
— Audra (@audruhhhh) May 26, 2020

Trying to plan your summer around social distancing guidelines? NPR breaks down the health risks of individual public activities.