MLBPA to respond to MLB's latest CBA proposal on Wednesday; game cancellations on hold

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association plan to pick up talks on a new collective bargaining agreement Wednesday morning after deep-into-the-night discussions produced enough progress toward a potential deal for the league to put off canceling another batch of regular-season games.

Nearly 17 hours of bargaining starting Tuesday morning and ending past 3 a.m. ET yielded some breakthroughs on the 97th day of MLB's lockout, but the union requested to reconvene with player leaders Wednesday before responding to the league's proposal, according to an MLB official.

MLB had threatened to cancel the season's second week, an act that could have grave consequences at a particularly sensitive time in bargaining. The ultimatum from the league, which locked out players Dec. 2, was simple: With a new basic agreement, players would report to spring training sites this week, free agency would reopen and, following a shortened spring training, a 162-game season that offered players full pay and service time would commence.

Players spent hours Tuesday night and Wednesday morning discussing the league's request for an international draft, a subject that the union has in past negotiations rejected and that does not have significant support from a rank-and-file with nearly one-third from Latin American countries. Additionally, players continued to balk at the league's latest offer on the competitive-balance tax, which would start at $230 million in 2022 and end at $242 million in 2026, sources said.

Other proposed deal points imbued hope around the game Tuesday that an agreement to save a 162-game season and prevent the parties from descending into even worse labor chaos would materialize. The league had proposed a six-team