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MLB taking 2020 season proposal to players after getting owners approval

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James Tubb
May 11, 2020  (3:28 PM)
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Major League Baseball owners have approved the league's proposal for the delayed 2020 season, which will now be presented to the Major League Baseball Players Association, sources told Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, on Monday.

The league and the union are reportedly expected to meet Tuesday. Both sides have been informally speaking for weeks, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post.

It's believed that MLB and the MLBPA need to overcome two key hurdles to reach an agreement: making players comfortable with protocols, personnel, and equipment so that play can safely resume safely in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and agreeing on how players will be paid during the shortened season.

The MLB owners have been adamant in recent days that they do not want to pay players pro-rated salaries because the financial losses would be too much. The league is considering a 50-50 revenue-sharing plan between teams and players, Jon Heyman of MLB network said Sunday.

Other ideas presented to the owners on Monday for the 2020 MLB season returning are:

An 82-game schedule in which teams would play against division rivals and the regional division in the other league — so the AL East vs. the NL East, for example.

30-man rosters, at least initially, with a 20-man taxi squad to provide depth as the season goes along.

There is also a proposal for a universal DH and the playoffs expanded from 10 to 14 teams.

The MLB season was officially put on pause March 12, to prevent transmission of the COVID-19 virus that has shut down the entire sporting world. Last week, the MLB announced that the 2020 amateur draft would be compacted to only five rounds.