Jon Heyman of MLB Network and Karl Ravech of ESPN are both reporting that Major League Baseball is expected to make a counter offer to the players today that, once again, offers less than prorated pay. Heyman says it’ll be a 72-game season at around 80% of prorated pay. Ravech says it’ll be around 70 games and 80-85% of prorated pay.
MLB’s last offer was for 76 games at 75 percent pro rata — and that was actually a tad worse than their first offer — so this is not much of a bump. It’s unlikely to impress the players in any event given that they’ve insisted on their previously negotiated right to receive 100% of prorated pay.
The owners’ “nuclear option,” as it were, is to simply impose a very short season at 100% prorated pay. Heyman expects the owners to do just that if an agreement is not reached within the next five days or so.
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Update (3:56 PM ET, Bill Baer): MLB has officially sent its proposal to the MLBPA, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports. 72-game season, 70 percent prorated play during the regular season which gets bumped up to 80 percent if the postseason is completed.
Other details: option to suspend draft pick compensation attached to free agents during the 2020-21 offseason. Expanded postseason, potentially eight teams per league. Season would start somewhere in mid-July and end on September 27.
This new proposal presents a modest bump in pay, an additional $71 million, per The Athletic’s Evan Drellich. The owners have set a deadline for Sunday. The MLBPA has remained firm on full prorated salaries, so expect MLB’s latest proposal to also be rejected.
