Morning Briefing: MLB Upset About Players' Latest Proposal

Good morning, Mets fans.

On Sunday, the most recent session of negotiating between the MLB and representatives from the MLB players’ association took place. From the current state of negotiation being described as a “deadlock” to both sides being upset with the other, we’ve got all the latest updates for you this morning.

Latest MLB News

MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reported that not only are owners “quite upset” about the players’ proposal, but that talks are now “deadlocked” and the possibility of losing more games seems to be in jeopardy.

The gap between the two sides’ ideal competitive balance tax, which has been a major block against hopes of this lockout ending soon, may be shrinking. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported that if players move in other important areas, they could include higher penalties on those who blow past the CBT.

Per Jesse Rogers of ESPN, MLB is seeking to institute new, shorter pitch clocks between pitches, proposing a 14 second one with runners on base, and 14 seconds with the bases empty. These two numbers have been experimented with in lower leagues, and MLB, in its effort to speed up pace of play, has asked for this change, among others.

Buster Olney reported that following the lockout, we are likely to see a wave of teams downsizing their budgets to make up for revenue lost. Olney speculates that it those taking the biggest hits from said cutting down will be veteran MLB players.

Glen Caplan, MLB’s special assistant of baseball operations, spoke about the players’ proposal, “The Players Association chose to come back to us w/a proposal that was worse than Monday night.” Read the full quote here.

Unsurprisingly, the union strongly denied claims that their proposal moved backwards. Read more about the two sides’ opinions on the proposal here.