Major League Baseball on Wednesday rejected the MLB Players Association’s offer for a 114-game regular season with no additional pay cuts.
League sources told ESPN and The Athletic that MLB informed the players’ union it would not make a counteroffer, leaving both sides deadlocked in their attempts to start the 2020 season.
MLB players delivered their proposal to the league Sunday, suggesting a 114-game season instead of the league’s 82-game plan offered last week. The players’ proposal includes a regular season from June 30 through Oct. 31, two years of expanded playoffs, $100 million in deferred money for players and an opt-out clause for players if they choose not to play.
According to ESPN, MLB told the players’ union it had no interest in extending the season into November, when it fears a second wave of the coronavirus could potentially disrupt postseason play.
The league has suggested playing a season as short as 50 games with no additional salary reductions, but it hasn’t formally proposed that concept, according to The Athletic.
The MLB season has been suspended since mid-March in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Team admin-ajax.phps, league officials and the players’ association have been negotiating plans for a return for nearly a month.
The league’s May 26 proposal would lower 2020 salaries from more than $4 billion to about $1.2 billion, according to The Athletic. Players earning the $563,500 minimum would receive about 47 percent of their original salary, and the top-paid players — led by Mike Trout and Gerrit Cole at $36 million — would earn less than 23 percent.
In the union’s latest offer, salaries would have totaled about $2.8 billion, leaving each player with about 70 percent of his original salary.
