The MLB Players’ Association issued its counterproposal to league owners for getting the 2020 season underway as the start of the season was disrupted due to the spread of the coronavirus.
The latest proposal is for a 70-game season with players receiving a full prorated salary for those games.
With most professional sports leagues coming back this summer, MLB has yet to formalize a plan for resumption.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said on Wednesday that a new set of proposals was forwarded to the players.
The tone from Manfred on Wednesday differed from earlier in the week.
“We left that meeting with a jointly developed framework that we agreed could form the basis of an agreement and subject to conversations with our respective constituents,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said. “I summarized that framework numerous times in the meeting and sent Tony a written summary today. Consistent with our conversations yesterday, I am encouraging the Clubs to move forward and I trust Tony is doing the same.”
But the union seemed to suggest that it was too soon for optimism.
“In my discussions with Rob in Arizona we explored a potential pro rata framework, but I made clear repeatedly in that meeting and after it that there were a number of significant issues with what he proposed, in particular the number of games,” MLBPA head Tony Clark said on Thursday. “It is unequivocally false to suggest that any tentative agreement or other agreement was reached in that meeting. In fact, in conversations within the last 24 hours, Rob invited a counterproposal for more games that he would take back to the owners. We submitted that counterproposal today.”
MLB said that based on an agreement between the league and players days after the league suspended Spring Training, players would only be paid a full prorated salary if games were held in front of fans. As of now, the likelihood of MLB games being played in front of fans this season appears to be low.
The players union has complained that the league is attempting to play the fewest number of games possible.
“The commissioner has repeatedly threatened to schedule a dramatically shortened season unless players agree to hundreds of millions in further concessions,” the MLBPA said on June 13. “Our response has been consistent that such concessions are unwarranted, would be fundamentally unfair to players, and that our sport deserves the fullest 2020 season possible.”
