MLBPA Letter Accuses League of Using 'Cynical Tactic' to Jeopardize MLB Season

The MLB and MLBPA seem no closer toward agreeing to the parameters surrounding a 2020 season, whose start has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

That sentiment continued Friday as MLBPA chief negotiator Bruce Meyer sent a spirited response to a letter from Dan Halem, a deputy commissioner at MLB.

Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic wrote the following:

"In a letter sent Wednesday, Major League Baseball deputy commissioner Dan Halem detailed the different reasons the league rejected a proposal for a 114-game season from the Players Association.

"On Friday, top union negotiator Bruce Meyer sent a blistering response, accusing MLB of employing a 'cynical tactic of depriving America of baseball games,' while adding that the league 'has done nothing to persuade' the players that its financial claims are accurate and warning that the union has no obligation to an expanded postseason if the league attempts to implement a schedule it picks on its own."

The news comes after MLB rejected MLBPA's proposal of a 114-game season without any further salary cuts, per ESPN News Services.

MLB had previously proposed an 82-game season with a 50-50 split of revenue between owners and players as well as a 50-game campaign with players earning prorated salaries.

Per ESPN, MLB told the players union that it had no plans to make a counteroffer to the 114-game plan that the MLBPA posited.

Ultimately, every passing day without an agreement appears to be one step closer toward there being no Major League Baseball for 2020, marking the first time since the inception of the National League in 1876 that an entire calendar year would go by without any regular-season MLB games.