When reports of the MLB's latest proposal for a return to play made the rounds on Monday morning, it seemed like baseball might be getting closer to getting back on the field.
Now it appears the league's offer was perceived to be anything but that.
According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, the MLB Players Association views MLB's most recent as offer as not a step toward an agreement, but rather a step back. Under the proposal, MLB would play a 76-game regular season in 2020 with players receiving 75 percent of their prorated salaries if the league concludes its postseason and 50 percent of their prorated salaries if it doesn't.
Last week, the MLB Players proposed a 114-game regular season with full prorated salaries, which the owners turned down.
The topic of prorated salaries has been one of the biggest sticking points in negotiations between the owners and players after the two sides previously agreed that players would be paid their full prorated for however many games are played during the 2020 season.
In the time since, however, the owners have asked for players to take a reduction of those prorated salaries due to the likelihood that games won't be played in front of fans this year, thus reducing revenue.
As noted by Joel Sherman of The New York Post, that previous agreement between the owners and players could prove crucial, as it gave commissioner Rob Manfred the authority to start the season for any length of time, so long as the players were being paid their full prorated salaries. As a result, it's looking more likely that Manfred could opt to enact a regular season in the 50-game range to offset the costs of those salaries, which ESPN's Jeff Passan noted could ultimately lead to a grievance filed by the MLBPA.
In other words, the standoff continues.
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