With so many numbers floating around, let's boil down baseball's issue to a single truth: The owners want a negotiation on player pay for the 2020 season. The players do not.

It's not that the sides are experiencing a tough negotiation. It's that they can't even agree that one should be occurring. That's an enormous disconnect.

Every day, more and more sources are making clear that the players are completely dug in on the issue of receiving full prorated pay. The players read their March 26 agreement with MLB on this point as definitive. The league strongly disagrees.

As evidence of this divide, consider this: MLB on Monday offered a 76-game schedule with a guarantee of 50 percent prorated pay if the coronavirus forces a cancellation of the postseason.

They want the union to counter. If the players responded with, say, a request for 75 percent to be guaranteed even if there is no postseason, there's a good chance they'd get a favorable response.

Movement toward an agreement, right? Nope.

The players won't counter by asking for a 75 percent guarantee because they do not believe this should be a negotiation at all. They believe the issue of pay was settled in March.

The union's executive subcommittee will convene digitally either Monday night or Tuesday morning to discuss the next steps. On that call, they will decide whether to outright reject the league's latest proposal, or to counter it.

It's hard to imagine a counter in which the players come off their demand for full prorated salaries. They are quite united in this view. Owners still want to meet somewhere in the middle.

If these sides do not find a way to cross this considerable divide, MLB will schedule a shortened season of indeterminate length but as short as 48 games (we predict it will be closer to 60). The league is not yet ready to do this, preferring more games and hoping that the sides can reach a new financial agreement.

As SNY reported last week, an agreement on health and safety is a near certainty. MLB has asked all players to sign a consent to be tested and an acknowledgement of risk.

The Players Association told the league it would consider the request once it saw the language. The league has not yet sent over the language, but if the union has any issues with the documents, MLB is unlikely to make it a sticking point.

On Monday, multiple sources reaffirmed that in the absence of a new agreement, the players will report to spring training, play the season and file a grievance.

That means -- and it's a crucial point to remember -- there will be Major League Baseball in 2020. The season is not at stake.

It is perhaps the only point that both sides consistently agree on.

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