MLB holds off on imposing schedule until protocols locked in

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball held off formally imposing a 60-game schedule Tuesday on its feuding players while negotiating an operations manual, but was on track to start the season from July 23-26 in empty ballparks.

Owners and players have spent more than three months of mostly fruitless talks on how to play amid the coronavirus pandemic.

A day after the players’ association rejected a negotiated agreement to account for the financial fallout of the virus outbreak, Commissioner Rob Manfred was hoping to announce a schedule. It would be MLB’s shortest since the 1878 National League season.

There was still one issue in the manual of protocols still unresolved, several people said.

In a twist, the sides intend to expand the designated hitter to games involving National League teams and institute the radical innovation of starting extra innings with a runner on second base. Those provisions were in the agreement the union rejected Monday but were to survive as part of the operations manual.

The union committed its members to starting reporting July 1 — those who decide to report. High-risk individuals would be allowed to opt out and still receive salary and service time, but others who sit out would get neither money nor the service credit needed for eligibility for free agency and salary arbitration.

MLB originally hoped to be the first U.S. major league to return, with an 82-game schedule starting around the Fourth of July, but public sniping broke out between management and players who distrust teams' claims of economic losses following years of franchise appreciation. MLB claimed that without gate-related revenue it would lose $640,000 for each additional regular-season game, a figure the union disputed.

MLB became exasperated with the union's...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/MLB-holds-off-on-imposing-schedule-until-15361535.php