According to Jeff Passan, the Major League Baseball Players Association is set to make an offer to the owners that will bring the two sides closer together in their negotiations to start the 2020 season. Passan says that the MLBPA will come down off of their last offer to play a 114-game schedule with full pro-rated shares, and they are offering an 89-game schedule.
The owners yesterday upped their previous offer to 76 games at 75% of pro-rated pay, while also eliminating the sliding scale payments that would have hurt the players who make the most money.
So now the main differences between the two sides is at 13 extra games and 25% of their pro-rated salary. That’s still quite a bit of money, but they are now a lot closer than they were when their initial offers came out and neither side presented a good offer. I wouldn’t expect the owners to accept this offer, but the gap between them is closing.
In addition to the main issue, the players proposed a 16-team playoff format for the next two seasons. That should appeal to the owners, as the postseason is where they will make most of their money without fans in attendance.