Back and forth
Summarizing the proposals and counterproposals that have MLB yet to agree on the parameters of a 2020 season:
March 26: With the coronavirus rendering a 162-game schedule moot, players agree to accept salaries prorated according to the season’s eventual length.
May 26: Owners propose an 82-game schedule with an expanded 14-team playoff field but, citing lost gate revenues caused by the absence of fans, ask players to take an additional pay cut. The higher a player’s salary, the greater the percentage of his reduction.
May 31: Having deemed a second pay cut a nonstarter, players counter with a 114-game season, insisting on prorated salaries. And any player with COVID-19 concerns would have the right not to play the entire season. The union, agreeable to the expanded postseason format, takes it into 2021 as well and allows for $100 million in salary deferrals if the 2020 playoffs are canceled.
June 8: Owners come back with a plan consisting of a 76-game schedule that would pay players 75 percent of their prorated salaries. That would drop to 50 percent in the event the postseason, which would include 16 teams in this latest offer, were not played. For this winter only, owners would also drop any draft-pick compensation teams normally receive when they lose a free agent, in theory opening up the market.
June 9: Players respond with a proposal calling for 89 games at full prorated salaries and a postseason consisting of 16 teams. They also propose a joint $5 million contribution to aid minor leagues and charitable organizations focused on social justice issues and a flat fee of $50 million if the postseason were canceled.
June 12: Insistent that the season not extend beyond October because of fears of a second COVID-19 wave, owners counter with 72-game schedule that would guarantee players 70 percent of their prorated salaries, increasing it to 80 percent if the postseason takes place.
June 13: Unwilling to budge from receiving the full prorated salaries they agreed to in March, players, aware that same March agreement gives Rob Manfred the power to unilaterally authorize a 2020 season that likely would consist of 48-54 games and the usual 10 teams in the playoffs, direct the commissioner to “tell us when and where” to play. This occurs the same day it is revealed MLB and Turner Sports have agreed on a $1 billion contract for future postseason broadcast rights.