MLB Believes it Has 'Smoking Gun' Email That Pokes Hole in Players' Argument

Tony Clark is fighting simultaneously for the MLB season to return in 2020, and for the players themselves to be adequately compensated for the inherently risky games they would play. However, MLB thinks they may have found an out that nullifies Clark's insistence that a March 26 agreement in which prorated salaries were agreed upon should be honored.

An email claims the league explained to the union officials that MLB would need more negotiations if games were played without fans to determine pay, claiming that union officials understood that concept.

While this could be a damning find that could make the players' case less solid if they confirm that they were indeed made abreast of that concept, this is fraught with issues from a legal perspective.

The parol evidence rule states that any extrinsic evidence, or evidence not part of the essential nature of a contract, meant to modify the terms of a written agreement when that agreement is considered finalized, can't be presented in a legal argument. Furthermore, leaking it to the Post presents a whole new set of challenges from a legal standpoint.

While this could technically be contradictory, the smoking gun might actually end up getting MLB in more legal trouble. A messy negotiation just got even messier with this curveball being thrown into the mix.