Players and MLB 10 games apart on season plan

NEW YORK — Baseball players proposed a 70-game regular-season schedule Thursday, a plan immediately rejected by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred with the sides 10 games and about $275 million US apart on plans to start the coronavirus-delayed season.

As part of the union proposal, players would wear advertisement patches on their uniforms during all games for the first time in major league history.

“This needs to be over,” Manfred said. “Until I speak with owners, I can’t give you a firm deadline.”

While the gap has narrowed, both sides remain opposed to additional concessions and the path toward an agreement remains uncertain and difficult.

“We delivered to Major League Baseball today a counter-proposal based on a 70-game regular season which, among a number of issues, includes expanded playoffs for both 2020 and 2021,” union head Tony Clark said. “We believe this offer represents the basis for an agreement on resumption of play.”

After Manfred met Clark in Arizona, MLB said Wednesday that there was a framework for the season. The plan included a 60-game regular-season schedule that would have $1.48 billion in salaries plus a $25 million players’ post-season pool, sources said.

“In my discussions with Rob in Arizona we explored a potential pro-rata framework, but I made clear repeatedly in that meeting and after it that there were a number of significant issues with what he proposed, in particular the number of games,” Clark said.

“It is unequivocally false to suggest that any tentative agreement or other agreement was reached in that meeting. In fact, in conversations within the last 24 hours, Rob invited a counter-proposal for more games that he would take back to the owners. We submitted that counter-proposal [Thursday].”

Manfred said Clark called him Wednesday night and said he was not going to present the framework to the union’s eight-man executive subcommittee.

“I told him 70 games was simply impossible given the calendar and the public-health situation, and he went ahead and made that proposal anyway,” Manfred said.

The union proposal would have $1.73 billion in salaries, plus a $50 million post-season pool. MLB’s plan would have players receive about 37 per cent of salaries that originally totalled $4 billion, and the union’s proposal would have them get about 43 per cent.

Both MLB and the union proposed starting the season on July 19, and players said it should end Sept. 30, three days later than management.