Major League Baseball officially is back, but there are still plenty of details to iron out.
Just ask Collin McHugh, who under his current contract format technically would have to pay the Boston Red Sox to pitch for them in 2020, The Boston Globe's Alex Speier explained Tuesday.
Here's how that's possible, per Speier: McHugh signed a one-year, $600,000 guaranteed contract with Boston in early March. Later that month, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association came to an agreement that would pay MLB players with guaranteed deals a $286,500 advance on their 2020 salaries.
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Now that the season is set at 60 games, however, players are set to make just 37 percent of their original 2020 salaries. In McHugh's case, that's $222,222.
So, the 33-year-old right-hander already got paid more in his advance than he's supposed to make in 2020 -- which means he technically owes the Red Sox $64,278.
How's that for a raw deal?
Boston Red Sox
McHugh isn't alone, of course: Any MLB player who signed a one-year guaranteed deal worth less than $774,000 technically owes their club money in 2020.
The regular season doesn't start until July 23 -- players are set to report to spring training July 1 -- and Speier noted MLB and the MLBPA could hash out this odd situation during that time to take McHugh and Co. off the hook.
But McHugh's situation highlights how much the coronavirus pandemic already has impacted player salaries -- not to mention the bottom lines of teams missing out on the revenue of 102 lost games.