Major League Baseball rejected the players’ proposal for the 2020 season on Wednesday and doesn’t plan on making a counterproposal, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
MLB rejected the union’s proposal for a 114-game season and said it would not send a counter, sources tell The Athletic. The league said it has started talks with owners about playing a shorter season without fans, and that it is ready to discuss additional ideas with the union.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 3, 2020
MLB had proposed an 82-game regular season. On Sunday the players proposed a 114-game regular season. Under the players’ proposal, Opening Day would be June 30 and the regular season would end on October 31, which means the playoffs would be in November. MLB doesn’t want to be playing in November because of the possibility of a second wave of the coronavirus.
Pay has been a big part of the negotiations. MLB has said that a March 26 agreement gives commissioner Rob Manfred the right to implement a season of any length if the players were to be paid with full prorated salaries, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post. A 48-54 game season is under consideration, along with an 82 game season.
Under the players’ proposal the players would get about 70 percent of their salary. Under the MLB’s May 26 proposal, players on the lower end of the pay spectrum would get about 47 percent of their salary while players at the top would get less than 23 percent, according to ESPN.
As for sports coming back, NASCAR has already come back and the NBA is coming back around the end of July. The MLB and the players need to reach a deal soon so that there can be a season this year. If they can’t reach a deal, then there’s no point in playing this year.
