Late Sunday evening and six days after Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred submitted a return-to-play proposal to the Major League Baseball Players Association, ESPN.com’s Jeff Passon reported on Twitter that a ‘source’ had revealed the MLBPA’s counterproposal.

This from Passan:

• The MLBPA delivered a proposal to MLB on Sunday afternoon, a source familiar with it tells ESPN. It includes 114-game season that would end October 31, the right to opt-out of the season for all players, and potential deferral of salaries if 2020 the postseason were canceled.
• For the players opting out: those who are considered “high-risk” would receive salary, whereas others would receive service time only.
• Further, players would receive $100 million total advance during the new spring training.
• Also: MLBPA proposes two years of playoff expansion.
• The inclusion of potential deferrals by players is an olive branch, even if it does apply just to a canceled postseason. It would defer $100M total, applied to players making $10M+ before proration, and would do so with interest to make players whole. It opens the door to more.
• Important note from the MLBPA’s proposal. It has a season start date of June 30. Players want three weeks for training. Bake in a few days to travel to cities — domestically and from around the world — and for coronavirus testing. The point: a deal needs to get done this week.

In a follow-up article to his late-night tweet, Passan wrote what we all pretty much know – that MLB is expected to reject the MLBPA’s proposal just as fast (or faster) than the players union did theirs. Passan did, however, add that with the battle lines now drawn, good-faith negotiations towards a workable – and expedient – resolution might now begin.

“Although the players expect the league to reject [their proposal], they hope it will serve as a bridge to a potential deal this week,” wrote Passan.

Stay tuned…

  *  *  *  *  *  *