Miami Marlins: MLBPA offers new proposal in an effort to play ball

Will the newest proposal for an 89-game schedule finally mean the Miami Marlins will play baseball in 2020?

How many more times are Miami Marlins fans going to hear about another proposal for playing baseball in 2020?

As it stands now, according to Mike Axisa of CBS Sports, the MLB PA will roll out another offer to get the MLB season underway, this time with a proposed 89-game schedule that includes an expanded playoff format.

The 114-game schedule the players pushed toward the owners, including Derek Jeter, was rejected. There have also been many conversations of the season consisting of 82, 80, 76, and anywhere from 48 to 51 games. All have been tossed in the trash. If there is to be an MLB season of some importance, it must be agreed to soon.

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"Per Axisa, “Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association continued negotiating an abbreviated 2020 season on Tuesday. One day after MLB proposed a 76-game season with 75 percent prorated pay, the union countered with an 89-game season and full prorated pay, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan’s. The MLBPA’s proposal also includes a 16-team postseason in 2020 and 2021.”"

Passan has been one of the foremost authorities this season that has been crushed by the threat of COVID-19, which has put a halt to all baseball activities since the middle of March.

Now, the players wait to see if their latest offer will be the one that makes for a memorable season, both on and off the field.

"“MLB’s proposals would all pay the players roughly one-third of their full season salary, only across a different number of games,” Axisa adds. “The MLBPA has expressed a willingness to defer some salary to help the clubs navigate their short-term cash flow problems, and now they’re proposing fewer games (and thus less salary).”"

The move by the players can be viewed as a good-faith measure to salvage what little of the season they could. As of now, almost 10 weeks of the season has been lost, which is a big blow to their wallets, but owners who are bleeding money but not having a product on display in the 30 ballparks across the baseball landscape.

The Miami Marlins had jumped out of the Spring Training gate, winning 12 of their first 20 games and had high hopes for growth in development this season. The front office and Jeter believed this would be the year the team would make a move forward. Whether that happens now after the long layoff cannot be decided into the players get back on the field and play meaningful games.

There are benefits to the offer the MLBPA has made, which includes more television revenue because of an expanded playoff format. While MLB does not have the leverage to make such a move on its own, the players would need to agree to it.

As Axisa wrote, it becomes a major bargaining chip when deciding how and when the season will be for all 30 teams.