Major League Baseball owners are willing to grant a major concession to players in negotiations about playing the season — but there’s a major caveat.
According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, MLB plans to propose a shorter season but would be willing to pay players a pro-rated share of their salaries as part of the agreement. However, the proposal includes a significantly shorter season than any previous plan.
Major League Baseball intends to propose a shorter season in which they would pay players a full prorated share of their salaries, sources told ESPN. The league believes the late March agreement allows it to set the schedule, and that this would fulfill players’ pro rata desire.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 1, 2020
The potential season Major League Baseball envisions would run somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 regular-season games, sources told ESPN. The exact number is being considered, but the aim would be to return in July. It would be less than half of players’ proposed season length.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 1, 2020
Owners willing to offer pro-rated salaries is a major step, but a 50-game season is far shorter than any other proposal so far. In fact, it’s less than half of what the MLBPA last proposed. There will be a worry that a season that short can’t give an accurate portrayal of which teams are good and which aren’t. After all, the eventual World Series winning Washington Nationals were just 19-31 through 50 games in 2019.
It remains to be seen if this will be acceptable to players, or if it’s at least enough to bring them to the table for negotiations. At the very least, the owners have included something that should at least get the MLBPA’s attention.
