At this point in the process, the MLB owners and players don’t even know if they’re still negotiating or not. The owners thought they had an agreement in place yesterday when Rob Manfred and Tony Clark came through with a deal that seemed to work well for both sides, with the owners giving in much more on the salary side. The players took it as negotiations, even though last week they said they were done negotiating.
Here’s the latest update for those who are still invested in this negotiating/agreements/bickering. At this point, the only real thing fans should be interested in is how many games will they play this season because everything else seems to be worked out already.
Here’s the first tweet from Jon Heyman, then all of the details that followed:
Players are expected to counter MLB by suggesting about 70 games instead of 60. Owners thought they had an understanding at 60 so unlikely to accept 70. Union saw the 60 as a proposal though. At least we appear to be moving.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 18, 2020
and
Players may also broach playoff revenue sharing plan in addition to a 70-game request as part of their counter back to MLB. Uncertain how MLB will respond since their leadership thought 60 was going to be the number. @JesseRogersESPN and @JeffPassan 1st mentioned 70.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 18, 2020
and
Players counter:
•70 Game Season – starting July 19th ending Sept 30th
•Full pro-rated pay
•Spring Training to begin June 26th-28th
•Expanded Playoffs in 2020 and 2021 season
•Minimum pool for Playoff shares based on rounds played, $50M if full playoff is staged (cont.)— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 18, 2020
and
Players counter (cont.):
•50/50 split of incremental TV revenues for any additional post-season games in 2021
•Neutral site/quarantine framework if needed to maximize likelihood of 2020 postseason
•Salary Advance forgiveness for all Players in Tiers I-III of March Deal (cont.)— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 18, 2020
and
Players counter (cont.):
•Opt-Outs – Full Service/Salary for Players who are High Risk or live with High Risk indivs
•$10M from for “Social Justice Initiatives” (from Welfare Plan)
•$50M to be transferred from Joint Funds (ITF) to Commissioner’s Discretionary Fund (more)— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 18, 2020
and
Players counter (cont.)
•Clubs granted permission to sell advertisements/patches on uniforms in 2020/2021
•Enhanced housing allowances in spring training and regular season
•DH in 2020 and 2021
•Parties to collaborate on broadcast enhancements
•Mutual waiver of grievances.— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 18, 2020
and
Owners are not responding positively to players counterproposal. Owners believed they’d had a meeting of the minds and the number was 60 games.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 18, 2020
finally
One owner’s response to players proposal today: “DOA”
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 18, 2020
Remember that these are the two sides that are going to negotiate a new Collective Bargaining Agreement after the 2021 season. That should be every bit as fun as these talks have been.
