Major League Baseball intends to propose a shorter season to the Major League Baseball Players' Association in which they would pay players their full prorated salaries according to ESPN's Jeff Passan.

Passan said on SportsCenter he expects this proposal to be somewhere in the neighbourhood of 50 to 60 games. Passan adds the league believes the agreement they reached with the players in March allows the league to mandate a shorter season and is prepared to use that option in the absence of a deal between the two sides.

The MLBPA proposed a 114-game season to the league Sunday night that involved owners paying players their full prorated salaries. Passan and other reported almost immediately that owners were expected to reject the arrangement.

In a prior proposal, the league sent the union an 82-game proposal with a sliding pay scale that saw players who make the most money giving back the largest percentage of their salaries on top of their prorated pay cuts as a result of a shorter season.

Multiple reports indicate the MLB would like to begin its 2020 season -- should it be deemed safe to play -- at some point in early July. While there has been no hard deadline publicly set for the two sides to reach an agreement, time is ticking since players would likely need to be in camp by mid-June to facilitate an early-July start.

The league believes the agreement originally reached in March did not account for the possibility of playing games without fans, which is now a certainty should the league find a way to start their season in early-July.

Opening Day was originally scheduled to take place on March 26 before the COVID-19 pandemic pushed back the start of the regular season indefinitely.