BASEBALL DAILY REPORT

Major league owners continued to bend some in five- and six-year labor proposals offered to the players’ union.

Union officials refused comment other than to call it the latest in what has been a comparatively regular exchange of proposals and concepts amid a cordial atmosphere.

A management source said: “We feel like we addressed two of the union’s concerns. We agreed to include a tax-free year at the end [be it the fifth or sixth year], and a longer [than previously proposed three-year] phase-in for revenue sharing to become fully implemented.”

Management also dropped the tax rate from from 40% to 39.5% and raised the payroll threshold at which it would trigger from $46 million to $46.5 million.