Players meet, wait for new Offer from owners

TAMPA — Francisco Lindor is hopeful.

Hours after the MLB commissioner tried to portray optimism about the negotiations to end the lockout that threatens the baseball season, about 50 players convened at a Tampa Bay area hotel Thursday afternoon for a union update about the upcoming proposal and negotiations.

“At the end of the day, we just want a good deal,” Lindor said when asked about the lockout potentially delaying the start of the season. “If that’s what it comes down to — we don’t want to do it, we want to play the full season — but if that’s what it comes down to, we continue to come to the table and continue to bring good things.”

Lindor, Carlos Carrasco and Pete Alonso were among the Mets players who were at the meeting. Aaron Judge, Luis Severino, Gio Urshela, Gleyber Torres and Luke Voit were the Yankees players who attended.

“We want to play,” Voit said. “We’re getting ready to play. We’re here to try and get that going.”

At the conclusion of the quarterly owners meeting in Orlando, commissioner Rob Manfred said the league would make a “good proposal” on Saturday, restarting the negotiations.

“Good,” free agent outfielder

Tommy Pham said. “We’ll see.”

Free agent pitcher Andrew Miller, who sits on the union’s executive subcommittee, was also hopeful, if not optimistic.

“Let’s hope so. I’d like to get something done. It’s a matter of getting the right thing done,” Miller said. “This has been a long time coming. And certainly a CBA is the time to negotiate pieces always. But we haven’t exactly liked the way we’ve seen things work in the last handful of years. And this is our chance to kind of correct some wrongs and fight for what we think is important. And we’re doing that.”

The players’ last proposal made small changes to the bonus pool framework for pre-arbitration

players and draft pick incentives for teams to break camp with their top prospects. It was expected that the league would make a counter proposal, but instead, MLB asked for federal mediation. The union said that adding a federal mediator would just prolong the process.

While Manfred refused to admit that spring training will likely be delayed and that the scheduled Opening Day on March 31 could be in danger if Saturday’s negotiations are not productive, the players said they are unified and will not cave on their core issue.

“I see missing games as a disastrous outcome for this industry,” Manfred said Thursday.

The players, who were locked out

Dec. 2, are ready to stand firm.

“By no means is that the goal, but I think we have to be prepared for anything. The goal is to get a deal that we’re happy with, that we think both sides are happy with,” Miller said.

Union sources were not as optimistic about the upcoming proposal, basically saying that the last league offer was worse than the recently expired CBA. They quickly pointed out that Manfred misstated the competitive balance tax in the revenue sharing when speaking earlier in the day, adding that it would, in fact, be worse in the players eyes.

A league spokesman said that Manfred misspoke and confirmed that the CBA would change.