Rangers Executives Take Temporary Pay Cuts

As clubs brace for the possibility of layoffs or staff reduction while revenue is halted, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports that several top-ranking Rangers executives have taken temporary ~20% pay cuts. The hope is to protect lower-level employees from being laid off or furloughed.

The salary reduction will hit the “top executive staff,” per Grant. That includes president of baseball operations Jon Daniels but not principal owners Ray Davis and Neil Leibman, neither of whom draws a salary. Further details aren’t known.

Whether and when the team will explore further cost-cutting efforts isn’t evident. We have yet to hear much from other teams around the league on this front. The situation is perhaps a bit different in Texas, as the club had been anticipating a massive revenue boost even as it pays (part of) the cost of its still-unused new ballpark.

By leaguewide agreement, all teams already decided to retain their usual salaried employees through the end of April. Players, of course, have been handled separately. And the slate of salaried employees generally does not include a large number of people you’d encounter during a typical trip to the ballpark. Teams each promised $1MM to hourly employees. But that left unaddressed the employees of third-party vendors. At least some teams have expanded their efforts to ensure some money flows to those workers.