If I had to guess

I think both the Player's Association & the Owners both mentally walked away from the table weeks ago in respect of restarting Professional Baseball in the USA. The players want all the money they contracted for in March, they also don't want to set any precedents that'll impede their freedom of action at next year's contract talks. The owners, are owners, they wanna spend as little as possible in a fraught and fluid pathogenic situation.
The issue of how many games will be played,is a mere sideshow, the players and the owners are both waiting for Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred to order the teams to play ball on a truncated fifty game schedule, one that allows players to collect 100% of their pro-rated salaries and which also imposes the least financial burden on the allegedly cash strapped owners. Everyone can simply blame Manfred for imposing a restart via fiat, everyone gets to keep their money and their freedom of action...and if anything goes wrong, its Manfred's fault because he forced everyone to play.
I don't often have anything sensible to say about professional sports, today's commentary is derived from reading the Boston Globe's sport page to My Mother over the phone while she sits out her own lockdown in a Nursing Home.  I cannot analyze the sport from any experienced perspective, but I do have a background in politics and can assess things on a political basis.
No one has an incentive to negotiate since they know they'll be compelled to play under that are circumstances the least disadvantageous to everyone.

Woo...

I'll bet Esper is out by the weekend...the reason will be "interfering with a tyrant when he is unlawfully trying to project strength".

Or maybe Trump will try and provoke the Iranians...or maybe a mix of both, because when Trump F*cks Up this Badly, he usually opts to distract...when he cannot project strength of course.  And right now despite a ring of bayonets around the White House, Trump looks like a weakling & a loser.