The Washington Nationals will be watching service time negotiations between MLB and the MLB players union closely.
On Wednesday, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and Joel Sherman of the NY Post both reported that players will likely receive credit for a full season of service time if the MLB season is shortened in 2020, as negotiations between MLB and the players’ union continue. That means a player like Washington Nationals shortstop Trea Turner would need not worry about his free agency being pushed back a year.
That’s a pretty big deal. Here’s why:
A player earns service time for each day he is on a team’s major league roster (even if he is injured). To earn a year, the player must have 172 days of service time.
With MLB following the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommendations limiting groups to 50 or fewer members through at least May 10, it’s impossible to say right now when baseball will get back to normal, when a revised Opening Day will be held, how long the schedule will be, or when the season will end.
That left the question of how to calculate a player’s service time in a shortened season a potentially important one. If a player could only accrue, say, 90 days of service time, their ability to declare as a free agent or to earn a higher arbitration figure could be put into peril. That might sound great if you’re the team’s owner, but it certainly isn’t great for the players who’d potentially lose a year of earning potential when their careers are already short.
The Nationals don’t have a lot of players where this would have a big impact, but there are a few.
- Turner, who was set to earn $7.45M in 2021, was on pace to enter his third and final year of arbitration after this season.
- Starting pitcher Joe Ross, earning $1.5 million this year, is also on pace to enter his third and final year of arbitration.
- Young star, outfielder Juan Soto, who was worth 4.6 WAR in 2019, per Baseball Reference, is set to enter his first year of arbitration. Players in their first three years of MLB service do not have any negotiating power at all, so teams frequently pay them league minimum, or just above. Reaching arbitration all but guarantees the best players of a seven-figure contract.
Sherman reported that MLB and the union hope to wrap up an agreement by Thursday, which would have been Opening Day.
The players are looking for an outcome that guarantees them something at this point. According to Rosenthal, during times of a declared national emergency, the commissioner can order pay withheld. The United States is currently under such a declaration. Rosenthal adds that players would likely receive a prorated portion of their salary for a shorter season, but could end up with nothing if the season were canceled.