Owners have plan for fewer games

In the back-and-and-forth negotiations between Major League Baseball players and owners, designed on getting the 2020 season started during the coronavirus pandemic, the latest counterproposal from owners is for a micro season in the neighborhood of 50 games, ESPN reported Monday.

The owners originally proposed an 82-game regular season to start in early July, followed by playoffs. On Sunday, the MLB Players’ Association countered with a 114game season that would start June 30, followed by playoffs.

According to Monday’s report, the owners are willing to relent to the players’ demand of a prorated portion of salary by number of games played. But instead of meeting in the middle on how many regular-season games would be played, the owners are now considering “a schedule of around 50 games,” according to the report by Jeff Passan.

Under the owners’ latest proposal, the season would get underway on an unspecified date in July.

The players believe that an agreement between the sides back in March awarded them

a prorated portion of their salaries based on games played. The owners believe the same agreement gives them the ability to mandate a shorter season, as well as the ability to further reduce player pay if fans are not in the stands for games.

ESPN also reported at least one group of owners is unwilling to budge on the previous proposal from MLB, which offered tiered salary reductions. Essentially, the highest-paid players would lose more to help prevent deeper cuts to lower-wage players.

“Sources say there is a group of owners perfectly willing to shut down the season, to slash payroll costs and reduce losses,” Buster Olney wrote.

Discussions are expected to continue this week, but a deadline to get the players back together for a reboot of spring training is rapidly approaching, Olney said.