MLB News: Players Association Reportedly Proposes 70 Game Season to Owners
Are you tired of this yet? The back and forth continued today between MLB and the MLBPA, but it seems like we are inching ever closer to the return of baseball and our Dodgers.
Per reports, the latest proposal from the union goes as follows:
- 70 game season
- $50M in playoff bonuses
- 50/50 split of new postseason TV revenues in 2021
- Forgiveness of salary advance for tier I-III players
- Universal designated hitter
- Mutual waiver of grievance
- Neutral site/quarantine framework, if needed for 2020 postseason
These come from ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Moreover, the 70 game season would start July 19 and run through September 30.
Is this all perfect? No. Will the club owners accept it? No. But it’s the next step to a middle-ground agreement that likely will end up a 65-66 game season, which is good for several reasons.
Players at 70 games and owners at 60. That’s too small of a difference to blow up the season (and suffer even further irreparable damage to the sport). Hopefully they settle at 66 (even number for home-road balance) and get on with it.
— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) June 18, 2020
Another thing trying to sneak by that likely will face much fan criticism is the fact that “clubs would be granted permission to sell advertisements/patches on uniforms in 2020/21.” That, of course, would inject more revenue into the pockets of the clubs, but in a season where the uniform already has an added a Nike swoosh to the front, an additional brand logo just does not sit right.
Related: Early Reactions to the New Nike Swoosh
But back to the important stuff, baseball does appear to be getting closer to returning, despite the best efforts of Rob Manfred to sabotage it. If that aforementioned middle-ground deal can be reached by the weekend, spring training 2.0 will likely begin before the end of June (perhaps even as soon as next week).
Our suffering may soon be coming to an end — at least as far as baseball is concerned — but the real question is this… will you be coming back to watch the game?
NEXT: New Deal Would Add Designated Hitter to the National League