The Athletic (subscription may be required) posts details of the MLBPA counter proposal to start the season. The players want 114 games, with the willingness to play double headers. They did not budge on salary, but are willing to defer salary if the post season is cancelled.

I thought the best part of the article came from Gene Orza, former lawyer for the MLBPA.

“Rob (Manfred) has this tendency, which can fool some people, but doesn’t fool you if you’ve been around the block once or twice,” former MLBPA lawyer Gene Orza said earlier Sunday. “And that is: He has something he knows he’s going to give you for nothing, but why bother giving it to you for nothing if you might throw it out there without it, and make you demand it, so that he can come back and say, ‘Well, all right, if you want to do it, I mean, OK, but you got to give me something for it.’

“No doubt in my mind, they want more games. They know the players want more games, so let the players ask for more than 82 games. … I think the union is sensitive to that.”

TheAthletic.com

This is why I tend not to worry about these negotiations. Manfred knows where he and baseball want to end up, and all the seeming hard-headness and acrimony doesn’t bother him. Note that the union, if this counter proposal is correct, has moved a little bit toward the owner’s side signaling they will help if the post-season get cancelled.

Maybe a final deal looks like this:

• A one hundred game season
• Full prorated salaries, but money deferred based on revenue brought in this year, including the post-season.

I take this development as a positive.