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The Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox are the latest MLB teams that have committed to paying team employees through at least May 31, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan. They join the Atlanta Braves, Chicago White Sox, Miami Marlins, Philadelphia Phillies, and San Francisco Giants as clubs that are officially keeping everyone on the payroll as the coronavirus pandemic continues to take course.
Another team that has committed to paying baseball-operations employees through May 31: The Boston Red Sox, per sources.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) April 20, 2020
Some teams continue to have concerns about cash flow. An option: to furlough employees with lower salaries who could be made whole via unemployment benefits.
League employees are also being paid through at least May 31, though commissioner Rob Manfred and other highly paid executives have agreed to take pay cuts.
This news comes on the heels of Ken Rosenthal’s weekend report in The Athletic, stating that Manfred will suspend uniform employee contracts on May 1, allowing teams to furlough employees or cut their pay. This stipulation may be of particular use for smaller-market clubs with cash flow issues as they lose out on the massive amount of revenue that usually comes from ticket, concession, and merchandise sales for regular-season games. Obviously, though, a solid chunk of teams are going to do right by their employees, even if that means they take a bigger financial hit while games aren’t being played.