MLBPA and the Owners Do Not Have Much Common Ground But There Is Still Time for a 2020 MLB Season

The back-and-forth between the league, owners, and the MLBPA has been public and contentious. There hasn't been much that all parties have agreed upon and SI's Tom Verducci shares his thoughts on the current situation.

Major League Baseball players and owners have been so far apart in negotiations, they can't agree on what they agreed on their March 26. The agreement is looked at very differently. The owners believe that allowed them to reopen talks based on playing in front of empty ballparks. And the players claim, no, we actually agreed already on payment. It's 100 percent of pro-rated salary. But there's another major difference, too that's been a sticking point and that is perspective. The owners are looking at the situation as a one-off anomaly, trying to get baseball back on the field following a global pandemic. The players, though, are looking at this as a multi year dimension, that they're now looking at macroeconomic issues, not just returning in 2020. There's a lot of difference between the two sides. But in the end, there is still time and motivation to get an agreement.