The MLB has made another attempt to start the pandemic-delayed season early next month, proposing a 76-game regular season, expanding the playoffs from 10 teams to as many as 16 and allowing players to earn about 75 percent of their prorated salaries.
Players have refused cuts beyond what they agreed to in March shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic began, part of baseball’s again acrimonious labor relations.
The MLB’s latest proposal would guarantee 50 percent of players’ prorated salaries over the regular season, according to details obtained by The Associated Press.
The proposal would eliminate all free-agent compensation for the first time since the free-agent era started in 1976. It also would forgive 20 percent of the US$170 million in salaries already advanced to players during April and last month.
“If the players desire to accept this proposal, we need to reach an agreement by Wednesday,” MLB deputy commissioner Dan Halem wrote in a letter to union negotiator Bruce Meyer that was obtained by The Associated Press. “While we understand that it is a relatively short time frame, we cannot waste any additional days if we are to have sufficient time for players to travel to spring training, conduct COVID-19 testing and education, conduct a spring training of an appropriate length, and schedule a 76-game season that ends no later than Sept. 27.”
“While we are prepared to continue discussion past Wednesday on a season with fewer than 76 games, we simply do not have enough days to schedule a season of that length unless an agreement is reached in the next 48 hours,” he wrote.
There was no immediate response from the union, which is likely to view the plan as a step back because of the large percentage of salaries not guaranteed.
“There’s social unrest in our country amid a global pandemic. Baseball won’t solve these problems, but maybe it could help,” Washington pitcher Sean Doolittle wrote on Twitter. “We’ve been staying ready & we proposed 114 games — to protect the integrity of the game, to give back to our fans & cities, and because we want to play.”
“It’s frustrating to have a public labor dispute when there’s so much hardship. I hate it, but we have an obligation to future players to do right by them,” he wrote. “We want to play. We also have to make sure that future players won’t be paying for any concessions we make.”
While there is no chance players would accept this proposal as is, the offer dropped the sliding scale teams embraced last month that would have left stars with just a fraction of their expected pay.
The latest proposal hopes to spark more talks that could lead to opening day at some point next month.
Players on March 26 agreed prorated salaries that depend on games played, part of a deal for a guarantee of service time if the season was scrapped.
The MLB said that it could not afford to play in ballparks without fans and on May 26 proposed an 82-game schedule. The union countered five days later with a 114-game schedule at prorated pay that would extend the regular season by a month through October.
The MLB is worried a second wave of the coronavirus would endanger the post-season — when it is scheduled to receive US$787 million in broadcast revenue.
An expansion of the playoffs would be a major change for the clubs.
The number of post-season teams doubled to four with the split of each league into two divisions in 1969, then to eight with the realignment to three divisions and the addition of a wild card in 1995.
The post-season reached 10 clubs with the addition of a second wild card and a wild-card round in 2012.
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