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Some MLB teams have begun to furlough full-time staff, with no revenue coming in from tickets, etc.
The Cubs are trying to keep their full-time staff on board, even with salaries somewhat reduced:
Chicago Cubs employees will be taking pay cuts and have been guaranteed employment through at least the end of June, sources familiar with an employee call today told ESPN. A majority of the cuts will be for 15% or less. The hope is that baseball is back in June and no furloughs.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 20, 2020
Without getting into a deep discussion of Cubs revenues and what the Ricketts family ownership can and can’t afford, this seems like a reasonable thing for the ballclub to do with baseball still on hiatus. Last month, the Cubs were among 18 teams that pledged to pay full-time employees through at least the end of May:
Teams that have pledged to pay baseball-operations employees through at least May 31, per ESPN sources:
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) April 21, 2020
- White Sox
- Phillies
- Braves
- Reds
- Giants
- Rockies
- Blue Jays
- Twins
- Brewers
- D'backs
- Cardinals
- Marlins
- Cubs
- Royals
- Red Sox
- Astros
- Mariners
- Tigers
Major League Baseball hopes to begin “Spring Training 2.0” sometime around mid-June, possibly around three weeks from now, and begin play sometime around the beginning of July, perhaps on the July 4 weekend. Nothing’s been set yet, though, and no formal proposal has been made to players. Passan’s tweet above suggests that if baseball does figure a way to begin around that time, the Cubs won’t have to furlough anyone.
As always, we await developments.