Major League Baseball has been working on several options to begin the 2020 regular season, but none of them have yet to be approved. The National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association have both approved return to play plans, but that isn’t the case for MLB.
Major League Baseball has sent several proposals to the Major League Baseball Players Association, and all of those proposals have been rejected. The Players Association has made several counteroffers, but the league has been hesitant to give in to their demands.
Major League Baseball has reportedly officially rejected a proposal from the MLB Players Association, and they will not make a counteroffer. With this announcement, there is some real uncertainty whether or not the 2020 regular season will take place.
Major League Baseball initially offered an 82-game regular-season schedule to the players with games expected to start at the beginning of July. The league was hoping to finish up the playoffs by the end of October to finish the season before bad weather began.
Players did not accept this offer, which forced the league to come up with different options. The league office and owners have started to create a plan that would call for just 50 regular-season games to be played, with games beginning near the end of July.
Owners have openly admitted that they will be losing money in 2020, and they will lose more money with every game that will be played. Fans are not allowed to attend games in numerous locations, and owners are not willing to pay the hefty salaries to their players.
The league already offered a deal to players that would call for teams to pay a prorated salary in 2020. That deal was approved by the Players Association in March, but that deal is now not good enough for the owners.
Major League Baseball has expressed an interest in bringing the country back together by starting their regular season, but that now appears in serious jeopardy. According to sources, some owners are willing to cancel the entire 2020 season to save on lost revenue.
The league will continue to explore options to get the season started, but the two sides are far apart on a deal.
Players Want More Games
The Major League Baseball Players Association has proposed a 114-game regular season to the league owners, but that offer was quickly rejected. The players appear to be ready to play more games than the leagues are wanting, and they are ready to get the season underway.
As a part of this proposal, the players are proposing that no more salary cuts be proposed by the owners, but that appears to be extremely unlikely. The players already agreed to a prorated salary for the 2020 regular season and are not willing to give up any more money.
Another reason that the players are hoping to get the season underway is that the Players Association fears that another wave of the coronavirus will hit in November, which will shut down the 2020 playoffs. Players are also hoping that the league will accept an agreement that will allow players to opt out of playing in 2020 for fear of contracting the coronavirus.
Players are willing to take a pay cut to get the 2020 regular season underway, but they want to start the regular season soon. Several top agents have also contacted the league to convince owners to accept the proposal from the players.
