Under MLB's collective bargaining agreement, full-time ballplayers, who were with their teams from June 1 to Aug. 31, govern how the postseason cash is distributed and to whom.
These transactions are literally inside baseball, as each postseason team's players parcel out their cut of those proceeds to themselves and anyone else they want — former teammates, trainers, clubhouse workers, a favorite bat boy or maybe even someone outside the ballclub.
These dealings are a glimpse into the intricate financial engineering that goes into running this complicated and major U.S. sport. And just in case you were wondering, it's also another example of how professional athletes don't live in the same world as the rest of us.
Chances are the players on most contending teams probably agreed on a method for distributing playoff money before the postseason began and now are waiting for a final revenue tally, says an MLB union source.
How much are we talking about?
Even for pro athletes enjoying long term multimillion-dollar club contracts, we're talking serious walking-around money.
Last year, the players' pool was a record $69.8 million, divided by teams that competed in the postseason, including the Cubs, according to MLB. Given the tremendous interest in 2016's World Series, I'd be surprised if this year's postseason total didn't rival, maybe even exceed, last year's impressive bounty.
In the baseball world, determining the number of shares, and who gets a slice, is sort of a trade secret.
A Cubs spokesman declined to address the topic, deferring to the players union. An MLB union spokesman referred to a section of the current contract called "division of players' pool" but also declined to talk further about the process.
Basically, the MLB contract calls for a players meeting to be convened and chaired by a postseason team's player representative. By the last day of the championship season the players must submit their payment schedules to their ballclub, according to the contract.
Oddly enough, cutting up the proceeds can turn players into umpires as they make rulings on who, besides the core players, get some of the money pie and how big a piece.
Teams vote for full or partial shares or a cash award.
This is where former players, team assistants, trainers, workers, and others come into play.
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