Per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, Major League Baseball has rejected the latest proposal from the MLBPA, citing concern over the number of games played. Joel Sherman of The New York Post corroborates Rosenthal’s tweet, adding the owners will pay full pro-rated salaries for a season of approximately 50 games. For an 82-game campaign, players would receive less than half of their original wages. In his tweet, Rosenthal also includes that the season is expected to start without fans.
Earlier this week, it was reported the MLBPA had sent a new deal to Major League Baseball about the start of the 2020 season. The sides have had trouble getting to this point, but it was expected that Major League Baseball would be amendable to the recent proposal, which called for deferred salaries for the players and a 114-game season. Considering the owners’ recent ask of a 50-game season, it was expected that the two sides would find a middle ground.
However, this recent tweet by Rosenthal casts doubt on the two sides settling in the middle. Rosenthal adds that the owners will not send a counter-offer back to the MLBPA and instead will negotiate with the league about the start of the season.
The league has unilateral power to start a season, but in doing so, it risks fraying its relationship with the MLBPA. A strong relationship with the MLBPA is essential at this time due to the current CBA set to expire after the 2021 season.
Andy Martino of SNY supported Rosenthal’s tweet, publishing an article that states the MLBPA and MLB aren’t close on a deal and in fact, haven’t talked for two days. In his piece, Martino says that the two sides are expected to reach a deal on the health and safety logistics for the 2020 season, however, a pact on the finances of the two sides might be more difficult to work out.
This week is a crucial one for the season starting on time. The MLB and MLBPA have already missed their “soft” deadline of June 1st to get a deal done and time is ticking for the two sides to compromise. The hope was for Spring Training 2.0 to kick off in mid-June with a start to the regular season around July 4th, but it’s uncertain if the two sides can agree to a deal in time for the season to start on time.
