If y'all are ready for some late-night nerding out, I'm going to explain the marginal salary structure MLB proposed to the union today. It’s complicated and will be rejected, but it's interesting to see how the league structured its first offer to the players, so bear with me.

Every dollar a player is due would be paid at a certain percentage. The higher the dollars get, the lower those percentages go. All of the salaries for the season would be prorated, too, meaning they would be based on playing 82 of the scheduled 162 games.

The salary scale in the proposal is:

- $0 to $563,500 (league minimum) paid at 90%
- $563,501 to $1 million paid at 72.5%
- $1,000,001 to $5 million paid at 50%
- $5,000,001 to $10 million paid at 40%
- $10,000,001 to $20 million paid at 30%
- $20,000,001 and up paid at 20%

Let’s do an easy example. Say a player is called up from the minor leagues. His original salary would be the minimum of $563,500. His prorated salary would be $285,228. He would be due to make 90% of that — $256,706. He also could make an additional $5,512 in postseason bonuses.

Now for a harder one: Mike Trout. His 2020 salary: $37,666,666. Prorated: $19,065,843. He would get $256,706 for his first $563,500 earned, $160,185 for the second tier, $1,012,346 for the third and fourth, $1,518,519 for the fifth and $1,788,477 for the sixth. Total: $5,748,577.

Trout could receive an additional $2.5M or so in postseason bonuses. The proposal calls for a $25M distribution to players if the division series are played, $50M for the league championship series and $125M for the World Series. The highest-paid players get the biggest splits.

But what chapped players so much today is that the biggest star in the game, the guy who is everything that’s right about baseball, would be going from making $216,049 per game under the full prorated salary to $70,104 under the marginal rate. More than a two-thirds pay cut.

With the playoff bonus money, Trout’s per-game salary could jump to around $100,000 per game — still a haircut of more than 50%. The league put that postseason-bonus cutout into the offer because of fears that a second wave of coronavirus could cancel the playoffs.

Yes, it is true: $70,000 or $100,000 a day to play a game is exorbitant. The players acknowledge this. This is also true: They have a gift. They are the best in the world at what they do. The demand for that has created enormous wealth for teams. Players deserve to share in that.

The idea of the highest-paid players potentially giving up something so that those who make less can reap the benefits isn’t inherently wrongheaded. But this — this felt absolutely egregious to players. And it’s why their counter, whenever it comes, won’t look anything like this.

Here is the updated news story with @JesseRogersESPN that covers the entirety of the league’s economic proposal, how it would work, what it says and how players reacted. Enjoy at @espn: https://es.pn/2X5YD7L 

sorry to blow up y'all's phones but not really