MLB in limbo after union’s offer rejected

League now mulling playing about 50 games

NEW YORK — If Major League Baseball and its players take the field for a coronanvirus-delayed 2020 season, it will be after acrimonious negotiations that resemble their labor war of a generation ago.

MLB rejected the players’ proposal for a 114-game regular season with no additional salary cuts, and will turn its attention to a shortened slate of perhaps 50 games or fewer. Owners last week proposed an 82-game schedule starting in early July.

“We do not have any reason to believe that a negotiated solution for an 82-game season is possible,” deputy commissioner Dan Halem wrote in a letter Wednesday to chief union negotiator Bruce Meyer.

MLB’s plan included a sliding scale of pay decreases that would leave players at the $563,500 minimum with 47 percent of their original salaries and top stars

Mike Trout and Gerrit Cole at less than 22 percent of the $36 million they had been set to earn.

Players insisted they receive the prorated salaries agreed to in a March 26 deal, which would give them 70 percent pay at 114 games. That agreement called for the sides to “discuss in good faith the economic feasibility of playing games in the absence of spectators.” The union has said no additional cuts are acceptable.

A 50-game schedule would result in players receiving about 30 percent of their full salaries under the March 26 deal.

“You confirmed for us on Sunday that players are unified in their view that they will not accept less than 100 percent of their prorated salaries, and we have no choice but to accept that representation,” Halem wrote.

“Nonetheless, the commissioner is committed to playing baseball in 2020,” Halem added. “He has started discussions with ownership about staging a shorter season without fans.”

Halem ended his letter by telling Meyer “we stand ready to discuss any ideas you may have that might lead to an agreement on resuming play without regular fan access in our stadiums.”

MLB wants to start the season in early July, and Halem wrote an agreement would have had to be reached by June 1 in order to reopen training camps by June 10. That would leave three to four weeks of preparation, which Halem said is the “wide consensus.”

“THE COMMISSIONER IS COMMITTED TO PLAYING BASEBALL IN 2020. HE HAS STARTED DISCUSSIONS WITH OWNERSHIP ABOUT STAGING A SHORTER SEASON WITHOUT FANS.” DAN HALEM, MLB deputy commissioner