Sources - MLB, MLBPA remain about $80M apart on international draft money

With the deadline to agree on an international draft only 10 days away, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players' Association remain far apart when it comes to the amount of money that would be guaranteed to amateur players.

The league submitted a counterproposal to the union on Friday that allocated $181 million in guaranteed spending for the top 600 international players in an inaugural 2024 draft, the same amount that was proposed in March and roughly an $80 million difference from what the MLBPA submitted last week, sources told ESPN.

The league also remains adamant that a 20-round international draft must include hard slots — meaning teams must pay the designated amount for each pick — so as to eliminate the early deals that have run rampant throughout the international market over the past half decade. The union, which wants to allocate at least $260 million to the top 600 international players, refutes the premise and wants to give teams the flexibility to go above or below designated slot values, while taxing those who exceed them by certain percentages.

The league also remained firm on a $20,000 maximum for undrafted free agents. The union is asking for $40,000.

The two sides face a July 25 deadline to agree on some form of an international draft, which MLB has sought for the better part of the past two decades. In exchange, MLB has offered to get rid of the qualifying-offer system, which constrains the market for a handful of mid- to upper-tier free agents every offseason. If the two sides can't agree, the international market and the qualifying-offer system will remain status quo.

The union believes international players should be guaranteed significantly more money so as to align more closely with the