Major League Baseball may not happen in 2020

“We’re going to play baseball in 2020, 100 percent,” Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred declared one week ago.
That 100 percent may be down to 0 percent as of Monday.
The hold up basically comes down to money.
Negotiations between the league and the Major League Players’ Association has hit a snag in the road, so to speak.
During those negotiations, the league offered several scenarios for the season to begin, with the latest (June 12th) having the number of games set at 72 and the players getting 80 percent prorated pay (36 percent of full season salary).
The MLBPA countered with two scenarios: a 114-game season or an 89-game season, both at full prorated pay.
As a result of the impasse, the MLBPA stopped all negotiations with Executive Director Tony Clark stating “it appears further dialogue with the league would be futile.”
With the players not at the negotiating table, it is now up to Manfred and MLB to decide when to schedule the season. As commissioner, Manfred has the power to schedule a season.
But, the more time it takes to schedule the season, fewer games will be able to be played. That means that the MLBPA can file a grievance with the argument being that MLB did not make the “best efforts to play as many games as possible” which was put in place in a March agreement between the two sides.
A loss in the grievance process by the league could mean billions of dollars in back pay to the players, something the owners do not want.
“Unfortunately, over the weekend, while Tony Clark was declaring his desire to get back to work, the union’s top lawyer was saying-- they intended to file a grievance claiming they were entitled to an additional billion dollars. --That sort of bad faith tactic makes it extremely difficult to move forward.” Manfred told ESPN.