Five days after commissioner Rob Manfred announced the cancelation of the first two series of the season, the sides are still far apart on core economic issues, leading to the possibility that more canceled games could be on the way.
The biggest move in Sunday’s proposal from the players to the owners appeared to be outside of core economics. The players agreed, contingent on other things, to an element the league was seeking regarding on-field rule changes: the ability for the commissioner to put in a pitch clock, larger bases or restrictions on the shift, as early as the 2023 season.
The Players Association also dropped its proposed starting point for a pre-arbitration bonus pool to $80 million, down from $85 million.
Despite those changes, the league said the proposal was moving backward. The league alleged that the MLBPA said verbally in Florida last week that the players were in a different place on the pre-arbitration bonus pool than what they proposed on Sunday.