Sources: There is progress in meetings of MLB, PA

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association plan to meet again on Tuesday, after a Monday negotiating session led to the first breakthrough between the sides since the league locked out Dec. 2, sources told ESPN on Monday. Monday.

In the face-to-face meeting, which lasted about two hours, the union offered a sweeping proposal in which it abandoned its request for free agency based on age and significantly reduced the amount of revenue sharing, asking the league to channel toward small-market teams, according to the sources.

The day before the lockout, MLB had asked the union to remove three items from its wish list: changing the reserve period from six years before free agency, reducing arbitration eligibility to two years and adjusting the distribution of income. When the MLBPA refused to do so, negotiations ended and the league implemented the lockout, the sport’s first work stoppage in more than a quarter century.

During Monday’s meeting, the union rejected three MLB proposals from the first post-lockout meeting between the sides 11 days ago, the sources said. MLB offered a formula-based salary system for players with two to three years of service, a draft pick reward for the success of players who started on Opening Day rosters, and a slight adjustment to a draft lottery. in which all non-playoff teams are eligible to receive a top three pick.

The players stood firm on several of their positions Monday, sources said, including raising the minimum salary from $570,500 a year to $775,000, raising the competitive balance tax threshold from $210 million to $245 million and instituting a draft lottery among non-playoff teams for the top eight picks.

Withdrawing the age-based free agency application, which would make some players eligible for free agency sooner than the current six-year standard, helped set the stage for Tuesday’s meeting. After requesting that smaller market teams receive $100 million less in revenue sharing in a previous proposal, the union lowered its request to $30 million, according to sources.

The small four-person meeting from each side included MLB’s Dan Halem and MLBPA’s Bruce Meyer, the main negotiators, as well as reliever and union leader Andrew Miller and Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort, who is the head of the league’s labor relations committee.

Weather is quickly becoming a factor in the negotiations, with spring training scheduled to begin in mid-February. While a spring training delay is unlikely to significantly change the trajectory of the talks, the specter of missing regular-season games, which begin March 31, is expected to play a role.

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Sources: There is progress in meetings of MLB, PA