The players have made their proposal

Days after Major League Baseball made their 'non-starter" proposal to the Major League Baseballs Players Association (MLBPA) the union has offered a counter proposal according to Jeff Passan of ESPN.

In the proposal the players want a 114-game season that will go from June 30 to October 31. at-risk players will have the opportunity to sit out while retaining their full salary, and any player can sit out and still earn service time. Part of the financial aspect of the proposal include $100 million paid to players upfront during Spring Training, and the potential deferral of salaries if the postseason is cancelled. The deal would also include two years of expanded playoffs.

Jon Herman of MLB Network adds in that players would receive 70 percent of their salary instead of the prorated 51 percent they would've received during an 82 game season under MLBs proposal.

Obviously there is still a long ways to go, but this is a big sign of progress considering some players didn't even want to offer a counter-proposal based on how poorly they received the initial offer.

Cubs release a large group of minor leaguers

In an extremely disappointing move the Chicago Cubs have released 28 minor league players according to JJ Cooper of Baseball America. Although this was expected, it is disappointing to see several players careers likely ended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There is a chunk of recognizable names on the list, Oscar De La Cruz was at one point a top Cubs pitching prospect, Brock Stewart was the Cubs Rule V draft pick, Jake Stinnett was a former second round pick, and Carlos Asuaje was a potential depth option.

The majority of these players likely had no shot at being major contributors to the big league roster either this season or in future seasons, but that doesn't change the fact that it reflects poorly on the Ricketts family and is yet another dark spot on their ownership.

Dayton Moore, the GM of the Kansas City Royals (a small market team by the way) said "..They're growing the game constantly because they're so passionate about it. So we felt it was really, really important not to release one minor league player during this time, a time we needed to stand behind them,"

It's not just the Cubs doing this, and they're definitely not the worst offenders, the Oakland A's are not paying any of their minor leaguers after May 31st.

This is such a disappointing time to be a baseball fan, the owners and MLB have made it clear time and time again that they do not care about the players or the fans and only care about the money, and at this point I would be surprised if their is a baseball season due to their greed.