Optimism among parties involved in the talks continues to grow that an agreement can be reached, despite fears a strike date was on the verge of being set after discussions reached a stalemate earlier this week.
The players' union and team owners continue to hold talks in New York, with Friday seeing a joint assessment of progress by player representatives and Don Fehr, the executive director of the MLBPA.
It is possible a strike date could then be set, if no immediate way forward becomes apparent.
A key discussion point has been over a competitive balance tax which could form part of a new basic agreement.
"It's clear that if there's an agreement in the next few days there will be a luxury tax in it," said Rob Manfred, MLB's vice president of labour relations and human resources, speaking on MLB.com, the League's official website.
"We had a productive day [on Tuesday]. We're closer to an agreement than we were earlier this week. The differences between the parties are smaller now than they were 24 hours ago."
Added Steve Fehr, outside counsel and brother of Don: "We are close enough that it is possible to make an agreement in the next several days."
The owners have sought a 50 percent tax on the portion of each team's player payroll over $98million (EUR99.45m) phased in over the course of the five-year agreement. This week, owners raised the payroll threshold to $100m (EUR101.45m) and offered to phase in the tax for teams already well above that threshold. In their latest proposal, teams with payrolls over $130m (EUR131.89m) wouldn't pay the full 50 percent until 2006 and teams with payrolls over $115m (EUR116.67m) wouldn't pay the 50 percent until 2005, adds the website.
For all others over $100m, the 50 percent tax would go into effect next year.
