Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association are scheduled to meet Thursday, when the union plans to present a counteroffer to the owners, multiple outlets reported Wednesday.
The negotiating session, just the sixth since the lockout began, will come on the day spring training was supposed to begin in Florida and Arizona with pitchers and catchers reporting.
Management’s offer to the union last week was not received well.
The game has been on hold since owners imposed the lockout at 12:01 a.m. on Dec. 2.
According to reports, MLB’s latest proposal touched on both economic and non-economic issues. The players felt issues they previously have expressed concern about weren’t adequately addressed.
The owners reportedly offered to raise the pre-arbitration bonus pool from $5 million to $15 million. The players are still looking for $100 million.
An MLB proposal to raise the luxury tax placed on teams by $2 million over the final three seasons over a potential five-year agreement also didn’t gain traction with the union.
Commissioner Rob Manfred said last week that roughly four weeks of spring training were needed prior to starting the season. The belief is that an agreement would need to be finalized by Feb. 28 in order to get players to spring training over the following few days and to start the season as scheduled on March 31.
