Newsstand

5:17pm: Per an official MLBPA statement: “While we had hoped to reach a revised back to work agreement with the league, the Players remain fully committed to proceeding under our current agreement and getting back on the field for the fans, for the game, and for each other.”

The statement noted that the union expects to reach agreement with the league on “health and safety protocols.” The players say they “await word from the league on the resumption of spring training camps and a proposed 2020 schedule.

5:15pm: It is now Manfred’s turn to act. MLB is expected to issue some kind of statement, at the least, this evening, according to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times (via Twitter).

5:00pm: The Major League Baseball Players Association has voted to reject the latest MLB proposal for the resumption of the 2020 season, per Jesse Rogers and Jeff Passan of ESPN.com (via Twitter). This result was widely anticipated after the league informed the union it would not increase its offer of a sixty-game regular season.

Per the report, the players’ executive board voted 33-5 against the latest MLB plan. That’s not the same as voting against a season altogether. MLB and the MLBPA struck a deal in late March that would govern the campaign if commissioner Rob Manfred decides to announce a resumption of play. It is also still possible the league and union could still return to the bargaining table.

The trouble with that preexisting agreement, of course, is that the two parties have held different interpretations of it from the jump. If Manfred simply declares a start date and season schedule, with full game-for-game pay but a shorter schedule over which the players can accrue salary, it’s possible (perhaps all but certain) that the MLBPA will end up filing a grievance action seeking more money from the league. That would also mean a return to the regularly bargained postseason structure and other general rules (such as the DH in the National League) that had been slated for modification.

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association are making a “last-minute attempt at haggling” in hopes of reaching an agreement on a deal regarding the 2020 season, tweets ESPN’s Buster Olney. It seems the last-ditch effort to find a common ground is the reason that the MLBPA has twice delayed its scheduled meeting to vote on MLB’s 60-game proposal.

If the two sides aren’t able to reach a compromise, commissioner Rob Manfred is expected to implement a season at a length of the league’s choosing. Doing so would ensure the players their prorated salaries for the duration of the 2020 season and would not include the expanded playoffs which the union has offered to ownership. Barring an agreement between the two sides, we’re down to the “last hours” before Manfred implements a season length, per Olney.

Throughout this process, both parties have maintained that they hope to reach a deal rather than have a season set by Manfred under the preexisting March agreement. Players are hopeful of reaching a negotiated agreement because doing so would result in playing more games at their prorated salary levels. Ownership wants a negotiated deal because that’s the only means of achieving the significant playoff expansion (and thus postseason revenue) in 2020-21. The March agreement indicates that players would need to sign off on postseason expansion.

To this point, onlookers are plenty aware that neither side has been willing to come down off its key points. The union is insisting on prorated salary, and the league is staunchly against pushing regular-season play beyond Sept. 27 and — as of last week — opposed to playing any more than 60 games at prorated levels of pay.

The exact points that the two sides are discussing aren’t clear, although Joel Sherman of the New York Post provides a bit of insight (all Twitter links). The league has told the union that it can only offer forgiveness on the standing $170MM advance to players on split contracts (a total of about $33MM that would effectively only be paid to the game’s lowest-paid players) and that no money would be added to the players’ share of the 2020-21 playoff pool. If fewer than 50 games are played, though, the league would strike the agreements on expanded playoffs and a universal DH in 2021.

Whatever the specifics, it doesn’t appear that length of schedule is among the points of negotiation at this juncture. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that the two sides are trying to work out an agreement on a 60-game season and that failing a negotiated agreement, Manfred will implement a season of 54 to 60 games.

Notably, ESPN’s Ben Cafardo tweets that Manfred is expected to speak on television soon. That certainly suggests that a resolution could finally be nigh — whether it’s Manfred announcing a deal with the union or simply announcing that he has implemented a season length under the March agreement.

We still don’t have a sense for how the league plans to address additional COVID-19 outbreaks within the sport, which we saw last week when 40 players and staff members tested positive (including eight in one organization). If a season length is at long last settled upon today — one way or another — the two sides they can pivot their full attention to that critical component of return-to-play talks.

JUNE 21: While no vote will take place today, Heyman reports that MLB is “willing to make a couple changes” to its 60-game proposal to facilitate an agreement with the players. One such change, as reported by ESPN’s Jeff Passan: if a full season isn’t played this year, Manfred offered in a letter to Tony Clark to cancel the expanded playoff format and the universal DH rule in the 2021 season. Such a provision would prevent the deal from leaning too far in the owners’ favor should the COVID-19 pandemic force the cancellation of the 2020 season.

In the same letter to Clark, Manfred suggests that the two sides’ disagreement on the number of games played might be an inflexible issue, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. With teams relocating from the spring locations to their home ballparks, Rosenthal tabs June 29 as the earliest date teams could report to training. And if the season is to end by September 27 (which MLB has insisted upon), that leaves 66 days to play. Thus, the 70 game schedule desired by the players might not be feasible.

JUNE 20, 4:55: The union will hold off several days on voting, which was originally supposed to take place on Sunday, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Instead, players will spend some time review health and safety protocols after teams have shut down their regular spring training sites due to an uptick in COVID-19 cases in Arizona and Florida. Expect an update on the players’ votes at some point in the next week.

JUNE 20, 1:54: According to Jon Heyman of MLB Network, the MLB Players Association is set to vote this weekend on MLB’s latest proposal for a 2020 season, which consists of a 60-game season with full pro rata pay, as well as expanded playoffs and a universal DH through 2021, among other things. As part of that proposal, the players would also waive their right to seek additional compensation through a grievance.

If the players opt to reject the owners’ proposal, expect to see commissioner Rob Manfred unilaterally mandate a schedule, a last resort that the league has kept in its back pocket throughout negotiations but which brings with it the possibility of a grievance action from the union. That said, Manfred could opt to forego that action and instead choose to cancel the season altogether, though it seems like that isn’t the preference of most owners.

This weekend’s vote will be held by 38 players—one representative from each team, as well as an executive committee of eight players. Those team representatives have no doubt maintained contact with teammates and will have a pulse on their feelings towards the proposal.

Heyman further reports that early rumors suggest that the executive committee may vote nearly unanimously in opposition of the league’s proposal. And while the team reps are harder to gauge, there’s a chance that a majority will also opt to reject the deal. If that’s true, it may be likely that the players will simply let Manfred set the 2020 schedule.

Last we heard, the players countered with a 70-game schedule. And while that offer evidently didn’t lead to an agreement, it seemed like the two sides were finally making some progress on Thursday, with just 10 games separating the parties making it look like a midpoint in the sixties was feasible.

And while a league-mandated schedule won’t bring us closer to the players’ desired number of games—perhaps making it look futile to reject the league’s current proposal—players will want to maintain their ability to file a grievance against the league, something that wouldn’t be possible if they were to accept. Rejecting the league’s offer would also do away with the two-year expanded postseason, as well as other quirks like controversial extra-inning rules.

2:10pm: The MLBPA has issued the following statement:

We delivered to Major League Baseball today a counterproposal based on a 70-game season, which among a number of issues, includes expanded playoffs for both 2020 and 2021. We believe this offer represents the basis for an agreement on resumption of play.

Notably, Clark looks to be throwing Manfred’s exact wording — “the basis for an agreement” — back at the league. The subtext, of course, is that the 60-game framework was viewed no more an agreement by the union than this 70-game proposal will be viewed as such by ownership.

1:35pm: The union’s proposal would see the regular season run July 19 through Sept. 30, Passan tweets. It also includes $50MM in playoff revenue, a share of postseason TV revenue in 2021, the aforementioned forgiveness of the salary advance for the league’s lower-compensated players, a universal DH (presumably in 2020-21) and both sides waiving the right to a grievance.

The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal tweets that the union also proposed a neutral site framework for the postseason, if needed. They also agreed to advertising patches on uniforms over the next two seasons.

1:20pm: SNY’s Andy Martino reports that there’s frustration among some owners that they’re receiving a counter to what they didn’t believe was a proposal (Twitter thread). Ownership believed a deal/framework was in place at 60 games earlier in the week. Martino adds that Manfred had to “really twist” the arm of some owners to get to that 60-game mark, so it seems a straightforward “meet in the middle,” 65-game concept isn’t popular among ownership.

The MLBPA, however, saw the 60-game prorated framework as a proposal — not an agreement. Of note, even commissioner Rob Manfred himself said this week that his meeting with union chief Tony Clark produced a “a jointly developed framework that we agreed could form the basis of an agreement.” That quote in and of itself falls short of indicating that an agreement was firmly reached.

1:00pm: The Major League Baseball Players Association has finalized yet another counter-proposal for the league, according to Jeff Passan and Jesse Rogers of ESPN.com (Twitter thread). The union’s latest proposal is for 70 games and includes a “split of playoff revenues,” per Passan and Rogers. The league will likely make another counter before any terms are agreed upon.

Earlier this week, ownership proposed a 60-game season with prorated salaries, while the MLBPA reportedly continued to hold out hope for a longer season. The MLBPA’s last formal proposal to the league called for 89 games, so this latest proposal marks a notable drop from that point. Other factors have begun to surface in the back-and-forth, such as a universal DH in 2020 and 2021, expanded 16-team playoffs in each of the next two seasons, a joint fund for social justice initiatives and the partial forgiveness of the $170MM advance that was already paid out to players as a compromise to receive service time in the event of a canceled season.

It seems as though talks are reaching their apex, although that sense has existed at various points in the past. We’re already well past the June 10 target date for a relaunched training camp, and the once-hoped-for July 4 start date is clearly out of the question at this juncture. But the two sides still remain hopeful that a mid-July start date can be realized, with expanded postseason play running through late October. A middle ground in the mid-60s seems like it should be plausible at this point, although it’s best to temper any expectations for straightforward compromise between these two parties at this point.

As ESPN’s Buster Olney observes on Twitter, though, the difference between a 60-game and 70-game season checks in at roughly $245-250MM in total revenue — or $8.33MM per team. When we’ve reached the point where the gap between the two sides is comparable to what multiple individual free agents were promised this winter (think Stephen Strasburg, Anthony Rendon or, on a larger scale, Gerrit Cole) — it seems things should be able to come together quickly. Still, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that there’s little indication a resolution will be reached “quickly.” Still, it’s nearly unfathomable to think that the two sides could be as few as 10 games apart in their proposals and not eventually strike some kind of agreement.