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UPDATE: ESPN’s Jeff Passan posted the details of MLB owners proposal to the players. He did not include the mention of players have to sign waivers related to risks they assume in playing.
ESPN has obtained a copy of MLB’s proposal today to the players. Here are the pertinent details:
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 8, 2020
- 76-game season
- $1,431,716,000 in potential compensation (75% of the full prorated salary of $1,909,436 over 76 games)
- Up to 8 playoff teams per league (at MLB’s discretion)
- No qualifying offer for 2020. Teams that lose free agents receive draft pick for players who sign multiyear deals at $35M+ or one-year deals at $17.8M+. Teams that sign those FA do not lose draft picks
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 8, 2020
- Spring training 2.0 lasts 21+ days
- Season starts ~July 10, ends Sept. 27
Salary breakdown to get to the $1.431 billion number:
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 8, 2020
- 50% of prorated salaries over 76 games: $954,718,000
- Payment to players if postseason happens: $393,000,000
- Bonus pool for postseason teams to split up: $50,000,000
- Forgiveness on $170M advance: $33,998,000
- Players deemed "high risk individuals" can opt out of the 2020 season and retain their salaries and service time. Players not deemed high risk would receive neither salary nor service.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 8, 2020
The Major League Baseball owners submitted a counter-proposal to the players, and the MLBPA considers it a “step back,” according to USA Today baseball columnist Bob Nightengale.
Karl Ravech was first to report the details of the owners’ new economics proposal. He has the owners offering 75 percent of prorated salaries with a 76-game season, playoff pool money, and no draft pick compensation for signing players in free agency this coming offseason. Nightengale reported that the deal was a guaranteed 50 percent, and it could get up to 75 percent, and Joel Sherman confirmed that was if the postseason was completed. The owners believes the regular season must end by September 27th because of Covid-related concerns of playing into November, per Sherman.
The players are unhappy with this in part because they are insisting on 100 percent of prorated salaries as negotiated in March. The owners believe they can implement a shortened season at 100 percent prorated salaries and have been holding a 50-game season in their back pockets. The math from that offers a reason why the players would not be happy with the owners’ current offer. Writer Jason Lukehart offered some basic math, and the current offer on 76 games offers little increase in pay from 50 games at full prorated salaries.
And so, we are left with two sides in what appears to be a deadlock. We’ve seen some movement in small ways, but not enough to have confidence a season will be starting soon. The hope was the regular season could start the first week of July, but that is all but assured of not happening at this point.