MLBPA proposal: Prorated salaries for players, 114-game season beginning June 30
This is a critical week for negotiations between owners and players as major-league baseball attempts to play a truncated regular season followed by an expanded playoffs.
With the calendar flipping to June and the clock ticking, there was some movement Sunday night.
According to multiple reports, the Major League Baseball Players Association sent their first counter-offer to owners.
Last week, the MLBPA flatly rejected the owners' proposal to cut salaries on a sliding scale. The highest-paid players were subject to the largest reductions.
In late March, owners and players agreed on prorated salaries for games played this season.
As the coronavirus pandemic worsened and it became clear games would be played with no fans in the stands for an extended period, owners asked the MLBPA to alter the agreement and accept a 50/50 revenue split on money brought in from TV and radio contracts.
That was rejected by the players, and so was the sliding salary cuts.
In Sunday's counterproposal, the MLBPA still wants prorated salaries, but they did offer some concessions.
Players asked for a 114-game regular season instead of 82. Games would start June 30 and end Oct. 31, followed by the playoffs.
The proposal also asks that players who have health issues deemed as "high risk" still be paid and be given major-league service time.
Players who are not "high risk" but don't want to play would receive service time only.
The MLBPA also wants a collective $100 million salary advance before a second spring training would start later this month.
One source said pitchers would need four weeks to get ready while position players would need three weeks.
Players also agreed to play an expanded postseason - 14 teams instead of 10 - for the next two years.
If the postseason is not held because of a second wave of the pandemic, the MLBPA plan calls for $100 million of the approximately $2.8 billion in salaries to be deferred with interest, payable in November 2021 and November 2022.
According to The Associated Press, only players whose original 2020 salaries were $10 million or more would be subject to having money deferred.