MLB, players still in need of a breakthrough before Monday’s deadline to cancel regular-season games

In need of a breakthrough to avoid a delayed -- and shortened -- regular season, Major League Baseball and the Players Association increasingly appear headed for a breakdown instead.

A fourth consecutive day of collective bargaining Thursday brought a continuation of the mutual game of chicken, with the players making incremental changes on two issues: service-time accrual and the amateur draft order, according to sources familiar with the dialogue. In response, MLB and the owners were once again said to be unimpressed by both the narrow scope of the players’ revised offers and the amount of movement they would generate.

With Monday looming as the deadline set by MLB to reach an agreement or begin cancelling games from the 162-game schedule and withholding the players’ pay, the sides are scheduled to meet again Friday at a spring-training ballpark in Jupiter, Fla., where they have negotiated since Monday. But as long as neither MLB nor the players make a big move on a major issue -- the competitive-balance (luxury) tax, for instance -- the odds of a deal within the next four days are somewhere between slim and none.

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If MLB follows through on canceling games, sources said the players intend to deny the owners’ proposal for expanded playoffs, which would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The players also would pull back their agreement to wear commercial patches and decals on their uniforms, another revenue driver for the owners.

The players, locked out by the owners since Dec. 2, continue to maintain that MLB can rescind the lockout at any time, open spring training, and even begin the season without a collective bargaining agreement while continuing to negotiate. The owners haven’t indicated a willingness to do that, according to sources.

Both sides have expressed “frustration,” a word used by multiple sources this week, with the minor revisions to previous proposals on many of the core economic issues over which they are far apart, including minimum salary and a bonus pool for pre-arbitration players. MLB also had been hoping for a more wide-ranging proposal from the players.

The players’ latest offer centered on service time. In an attempt to prevent teams from delaying the promotion of a player to gain an additional year of contractual control, as the Chicago Cubs notoriously did with Kris Bryant, the union proposed awarding a full year of service time to rookies who receive votes for end-of-season awards or achieve statistical benchmarks.

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In a previous proposal, the players asked for that year of service time for infielders, catchers, and designated hitters who finish in the top seven in Wins Above Replacement (WAR) and outfielders and pitchers who finish in the top 20. They revised those numbers to top 5 for the first category of players and top 15 for the second, an adjustment that the union estimated would impact 20 players over the five-year agreement rather than 29.

New York Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner reportedly joined the MLB delegation for Thursday’s meetings, which also included Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort and San Diego Padres owner Ron Fowler. Several players, including New York Mets ace Max Scherzer, participated in the talks again.

Friday is expected to mark MLB’s turn to make a counteroffer, with time running out for the big move that will be required to jump-start the talks in earnest. In swapping proposals over the last four days, neither MLB nor the players have moved off their respective positions on the luxury tax. Doing so now may help advance the ball over the weekend.

Then again, they are still stuck on their respective 20-yard lines.

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