PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan)- The latest proposal from MLB owners to the player's association features a 76-game season at 75% of the prorated salaries for the players.
Early returns? Not good. The players are adamant that they will not play if they don't receive 100% of their prorated salaries.
Heyman believes there is still hope in this situation and regardless, we will see baseball being played at some point this summer.
"Barring any real spike in COVID numbers, we will have baseball because commissioner Manfred has that fail safe. If they can't get a deal done, he can order them back to work on a prorated basis. From what I gather, the players can file a grievance but there would be an injunction so they would have to play.
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We're going to have baseball whether it's 48 games or 76 games or 114, that hasn't been determind yet. But we will have baseball in my opinion."
But if the two sides do come to a deal, Heyman laid out what could work and the middle ground that could be met.
"They're probably going to have to get creative which means maybe do something that could effect the next CBA, maybe add something that wasn't expected. The owners did throw in the dismissal of the qualifying offer, which is a benefit for free agents, into their proposal yesterday. I know their proposal wasn't generally liked by the union but did they get a little creative there and tried to throw them a bone.
There are different ways to do it. I think ultimately, at this point though, the players are insistent on the (100%) prorated. I think there is a way to meet in the middle there. Perhaps it's 60 games, prorated with the expanded playoffs, maybe 65 games. The players do seem to have some leverage here because they know the owners need to play. It's going to get done one way or another, it looks bad now, it is coming down to the end, you're absolutely right on all of that."