Paul Skenes Says Players Will Miss Games 'If We Have To,' Discusses Role with MLBPA amid CBA Talks

As the MLB Players' Association prepares for contract bargaining agreement discussions with MLB's owners, one of the league's biggest stars said that he and others are willing to make sacrifices if necessary.

Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes said players will miss games "if we have to."

"There's a line that we're not going to cross, and if we have to miss games, we'll miss games," Skenes said, per Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "I'm sure the owners feel the same way, so we'll see. It'll be interesting. There's probably not a whole lot that's going to happen until the time comes where we have to miss games."

Skenes, an executive subcommittee member of the MLBPA, added that the union needs "to think about every player in every demographic other than yourself."

Skenes' comments come after MLB's owners officially proposed a salary cap at the end of May. It's the first time since 1994 that owners have proposed a salary cap, and that ended with a strike that cancelled the remainder of the season, including the World Series.

Before the salary cap proposal, the MLBPA called for "expanded free agency and salary arbitration rights along with almost doubling the major league minimum and increasing the money high-revenue teams share with the less-wealthy clubs," as well as a "'competitive integrity tax' that would penalize teams dropping below a payroll floor."

Additionally, the MLBPA proposed a luxury tax threshold of $300 million.

The salary cap proposed by the owners would limit payroll to $245.3 million next year and set a salary floor of $171.2 million. If the cap system were in place this year, six teams would be above the cap while 15 teams would be below the salary floor, per Spotrac.

In a statement, MLBPA interim executive director Bruce Meyer said cap systems "harm players at all levels, erode or eliminate contractual guarantees, pit player against player, lead to more work stoppages, not less, and get worse for players over time."

Commissioner Rob Manfred said after the salary cap proposal that he worries about a work stoppage, but added that MLB "can't ignore that financial penalties have not gotten it done for us."

"Of course I do," he said, per Ronald Blum of the Associated Press. "We're open to whatever ideas people have, but we need a realistic framework that addresses the fans' concerns about competitive balance, and you just can't ignore that financial penalties have not gotten it done for us."

Since 2003, CBAs have steadily increased tax rates and punishments through the luxury tax system, but teams have continued to build expensive rosters while taking on hefty tax bills.

Skenes and the rest of the MLBPA would likely prefer missing games, but it's clear they're willing to do what it takes to continue to fight against a salary cap.

"We are very united. I don't think people understand how united we are and how on the same page we are," Skenes said. "But if we give in to certain things, it would be a disservice to the players who came before us."