Yankees: MLBPA Proposes 70-Game Counter to Owners

The MLBPA has posted a reasonable counter to MLB owners after Wednesday’s near deal, and we’re getting somewhere, Yankees fans.

After months of screaming, When-And-Where-ing, emphatic rejections and eye-gouging backtracking, it finally appears the MLB owners and MLBPA have been kicked in the hind quarters and are ready for business, allowing Yankees fans to open their second eye.

At least, we hope.

After a landmark Tony Clark-Rob Manfred face-to-face on Wednesday afternoon that resulted in the framework of a deal including 60 pro rated games, the MLBPA has taken their time and countered on Thursday, offering 70 games at the same rate. And now, we wait, but hopefully not for too long.

While it remains somewhat unclear what, exactly, ownership thought they had on Wednesday in terms of a deal, the players were always going to use that proposal’s 10 baked-in off days as an opportunity to request a higher total of games played (which all fans want, anyway!).

In fact, it’s been assumed on both sides (reportedly) since Wednesday’s numbers leaked that this would eventually creep closer to 65-66 games, with the time on the calendar to be able to accommodate such things.

Seeing as that was the expectation of many once the first reasonable proposal dropped, MLBPA’s 70-game counter marks the first “next step” that falls logically in line with the same conclusion this entire cycle. It’s like the players just finished the owners’ sentences, instead of responding to their recited Shakespeare sonnet with the collected lyrics of Los Del Rio, the Macarena guys.

The difference between the two sides is now a small percentage point, but includes about $250 million — in other words, one old-school bloated Yankees payroll.

Based on the closeness of the two sides, but the time that still remained on the clock after Wednesday, the players would’ve been insane not to attempt to push for more games, as well as float to the media that that’d be their preference, especially once owners got a rare “win” by leaking a “done deal” on Wednesday and putting the pressure on the players (thanks, Jon Heyman). Odds are, it’ll result in a midpoint.

Either way, we’re in shouting distance now, instead of having to do our shouting across craters and in opposite directions.

For the first time in a long time, this Thursday news drop was the next logical step in a discussion that appears to be reaching a detente.