Hope for a Major League Baseball season was rekindled on Wednesday, at least for the time being.
Major League Baseball has sent the MLB Players Association a new proposal for a 60-game regular season in which players would be paid 100% of their prorated salaries, according to multiple reports Wednesday. The season would begin as early as July 19, more than two weeks after the early July start date under MLB’s original 82-game proposal last month.
Per the Associated Press, the proposal also includes an expanded 16-team postseason in which the Wild Card round expand to eight best-of-three series.
The proposal emerged out of an in-person meeting between MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and MLBPA executive director Tony Clark. In a statement, Manfred referred to the proposal as “a jointly developed framework that we agreed could form the basis of an agreement.”
The union Wednesday disputed that the sides had reached an agreement and some players were reportedly dissatisfied with the number of games in the proposal.
Wednesday’s development was the latest twist in what has been a fraught negotiation between the league and union. The players broke off negotiations last weekend and called for the league to set a schedule, which Manfred can do unilaterally. That was followed by the league saying it would not set a schedule unless the union agreed not to file a grievance alleging bad faith negotiations.
The conflict, the most serious between the league and union since a strike was narrowly avoided in 2002, has centered on player compensation in a shortened, fanless season. The league has been pushing for either an extremely short season or a longer season in which players would be paid less than their prorated salaries. The union has insisted on players receiving their full prorated salaries in as long a season as conditions will allow.
[News from AP 6.17, NYT 6.17, ESPN.com 6.17, USA Today 6.17]
