The baseball players union, as expected, formally rejected the owners’ proposal on service time Thursday, clearing the way for the two sides to complete negotiations on a new collective-bargaining agreement.
Barring a delay prompted by management hard-liners, a deal could be concluded next week.
Rejection of what some owners viewed as a compromise on service time would seem an unlikely route to an agreement, but it was an issue that the owners had to try to get the players to move on, and one the players had to let the owners know was not negotiable.
The proposal rejected by the union would have given service time to all players for time they missed during the 1994-95 strike, except for the 19 or 20 who would be eligible for free agency at the end of this season because of the extra time.
