Union offer coming in MLB lockout talks

Locked out baseball players plan to make a counteroffer to management on Monday, 11 days after clubs gave the union a proposal when the snail-paced negotiations resumed following a 42-day break.

The players’ association asked Major League Baseball on Thursday to schedule the negotiating session.

There is dwindling time to reach an agreement in time for spring training to start on Feb. 16. The scheduled March 31 opening day is increasingly threatened, given the need for players to report, go through COVID-19 protocols and have at least three weeks of workouts that include a minimal number of exhibition games.

Players don’t receive paychecks until the regular season, and owners get only a small percentage of their revenue during the offseason. Those factors create negotiations that are a game of chicken until mid- to late February, when significant economic losses become more imminent. When owners made their new proposal on Jan. 13, players reacted coolly and said they would contact MLB when they were ready to respond.

Robot umpires have been given a promotion. MLB is expanding its automated strike zone experiment to Triple-A, the highest level of the minor leagues.

Golf: Patrick Cantlay shot a 10-under 62 Thursday at La Quinta Country Club for a share of the firstround lead with rookie Lee Hodges in The American Express.

Olympics: The U.S. Olympic team’s top doctor says all of the 200-plus athletes heading to Beijing for the Winter Games next month are fully vaccinated, and not a single one asked for a medical exemption. Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Finnoff told The Associated Press the 21-day quarantine period the IOC is requiring for unvaccinated participants, combined with the education the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee provided, “really resonated with the athletes.”