JUPITER, Fla. — Another day ran off the clock on talks to salvage Opening Day when locked-out baseball players proposed what they considered a small move forward in drawn-out labor negotiations and management termed it a third straight step backward.

Management again proposed a federal mediator enter the negotiations, but the union immediately turned down that idea, leaving Major League Baseball on track to lose regular-season games to a labor dispute for the first time since 1995.

Less than a week remains until the sides reach what management says is a Monday deadline for a deal that would allow the season to start as scheduled on March 31. Players have not said whether they accept that timeframe, and there remains a sense both sides are awaiting more time pressure to force more major moves by the other.

Still, the sides agreed to meet for a third day in a row Wednesday, the 84th day of the second-longest work stoppage in baseball history.

Players made a tiny shift toward management Tuesday on their proposal for increased salary arbitration eligibility, lowering to the top 75% by service time among the group with at least two seasons in the majors but less than three.

The union last week came off its prior demand that all two-year players be eligible – the level from 1974-86 – and instead proposed the top 80% by service.

Teams have said any movement in this area is not significant because management maintains it will never agree to any increase.

Players took a step back from clubs in their proposal for major league minimum salaries, which had been for $775,000 this season with $25,000 annual increases during a five-year deal to $875,000 in 2026. The union instead proposed a $30,000 rise each year, to $895,000 in the final year.

MLB has proposed a rise from $570,500 to $630,000 and then by $10,000 annually, to $670,000 by 2026.

The union calculated its movement for the day as $25 million over five years. The $5 million average amounts to just over 0.1% of player compensation that totaled $4.05 billion last season, down from a record high of just under $4.25 billion in 2017.

The sides drew closer on their proposals for a lottery that would determine the early picks in each year’s amateur draft, with the union lowering its proposal to the top seven selections from eight, a day after management raised from three to four. The union also is asking for other adjustments that management hasn’t been interested in.

There were two sessions, a main meeting followed by caucuses and then a two-on-two discussion among union lead negotiator Bruce Meyer, Deputy Commissioner Dan Halem, Colorado CEO Dick Monfort and New York Mets pitcher Max Scherzer.

The sides had met on consecutive days just once before, on Jan. 24 and 25.

There was no movement on the biggest issue: luxury tax thresholds and rates.

The union made its last proposal just before the lockout started Dec. 2, dropping from $248 million to $245 million for this year, with a rise to $273 million by 2026.

Teams have been offering an increase from last season’s $210 million to $214 million in both this year and next and they have not moved off that. On Feb. 12 they upped their proposal by $2 million annually in each of the final three season of a deal: $216 million in 2024, $218 million in 2025 and $222 million in 2026.

Teams have told the union they will not decrease revenue sharing and will not add new methods for players to accrue service time, which players said are needed to prevent teams from holding players back to delay free agency.

There also was no change in the proposals for a pool of money devoted to players not yet eligible for salary arbitration. The union is at $115 million and clubs at $20 million.

Management termed this a step backward because the union increased its plan by $15 million on Feb. 17, five days after teams accepted the union concept and offered $10 million. Clubs upped their offer to $20 million on Monday, when negotiations were shifted from New York to Roger Dean Stadium, the spring training home of the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals.

While much of the focus is on the deal’s impact on the top of the market, the union also asked Tuesday for increases in the minor league minimum, which was $46,600 last year for a player signing his first big league contract and $93,000 for a player signing a second or later major league contract.

The union increased Tuesday from $65,200 to $66,000 for initial contracts this year and from $130,400 to $131,200 for later contracts. The figures would climb to $73,400 and $145,900 by 2026, up from $71,400 and $142,700 in the players’ Feb. 17 proposal.

Management also accuses the union of moving backward on service-time proposals.

YANKEES: Paul O’Neill’s No. 21 will be retired by the New York Yankees – on Aug. 21.

The Yankees said they will hold Paul O’Neill Day ceremonies before that day’s game against Toronto – assuming the lockout ends and the 2022 season is played.

O’Neill will become the 23rd player or manager whose number was retired by the Yankees.

A four-time World Series champion for the Yankees nicknamed “The Warrior” by the late owner George Steinbrenner, O’Neill hit .303 with 185 homers and 858 RBIs for the Yankees from 1993-2001. He was a four-time All-Star with the Yankees and won the 1994 AL batting title during a strike-shortened season.

A plaque for O’Neill in Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park was dedicated on Aug. 9, 2014.

He is among the broadcast analysts for the Yankees’ YES Network.

Other Yankees with retired numbers are: No. 1 (Billy Martin, 1986), No. 2 (Derek Jeter, 2017), No. 3 (Babe Ruth, 1948), No. 4 (Lou Gehrig, 1939), No. 5 (Joe DiMaggio, 1952), No. 6 (Joe Torre, 2014), No. 7 (Mickey Mantle, 1969), No. 8 (Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey, 1972), No. 9 (Roger Maris, 1984), No. 10 (Phil Rizzuto, 1985), No. 15 (Thurman Munson, 1979), No. 16 (Whitey Ford, 1974), No. 20 (Jorge Posada, 2015), No. 23 (Don Mattingly, 1997), No. 32 (Elston Howard, 1984), No. 37 (Casey Stengel, 1970), No. 42 (Mariano Rivera, 2013), No. 44 (Reggie Jackson, 1993), No. 46 (Andy Pettitte, 2015), No. 49 (Ron Guidry, 2003) and No. 51 (Bernie Williams, 2015).

ONE TIME Texas Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in a case arising from an altercation with his teenage daughter, officials said.

Hamilton, 40, pleaded guilty to unlawful restraint under a plea deal that dismisses a 2020 felony indictment for injury to a child, the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office said in social media postings.

State District Judge Mike Thomas sentenced Hamilton to one year of deferred probation, fined him $500 and ordered him to pay court costs, do community service and attend parenting and anger management classes. Thomas ordered him not to consume alcohol, be subject to random urine drug tests and have no contact with the daughter he restrained. If he satisfies the probation’s requirements, the charge will be dismissed.

Hamilton’s attorneys had said the Texas Rangers Hall of Famer was innocent of injury to a child.

His 14-year-old daughter told her mother, Hamilton’s ex-wife, that her father struck her after he became enraged by a comment from her.

According to an affidavit by a Keller Police Department detective, Hamilton’s daughter told police that he went on a rampage on Sept. 30, 2019. She says she made a comment to Hamilton that upset him, so he threw a full water bottle overhand at her, hitting her in the chest, then cursed and shouted at her.

He pulled away the chair on which she rested her feet and threw it, breaking the chair, she told detectives. It didn’t hit her, but he grabbed her by the shoulders and lifted her from the chair on which she sat. She fell to the floor, and he lifted her, threw her over his shoulder and carried her to her bedroom.

The girl said at this point she was telling Hamilton, “I’m sorry.” Upon reaching her bedroom door, he tossed the teen onto her bed, pressed her face onto the mattress and began hitting her legs with an open hand and closed fist.

She said that after he finished striking her, he said he hoped she would tell the judge “what a terrible dad I am so I don’t have to see you anymore, and you don’t have to come to my house again.”

As he left the room, Hamilton’s daughter said he told her to gather her things for school. When she replied that she had already put them in the car, he responded, “Well, aren’t you just the perfect child.”

The matter “has been a nightmare, to put it mildly,” according to a statement read on behalf of the daughter when Hamilton entered the plea.

“My mom has taught me to forgive and how to love well, set boundaries, and pray for those who hurt us, but it isn’t always easy. I hope for all of our sakes he gets the help he needs.,” she said.

Hamilton also has two other daughters with his former wife, Katie Chadwick Hamilton.

After Hamilton was the first overall pick out of high school in the 1999 amateur draft by Tampa Bay, his career was nearly destroyed by cocaine and alcohol addiction. He returned to baseball with Cincinnati and made his big-league debut in 2007 when he hit 19 homers in 90 games before being traded to the Rangers. He was part of their only two World Series teams (2010 and 2011) and was an All-Star five seasons in a row.

An awe-inspiring display in the Home Run Derby at Yankee Stadium in 2008 was a highlight of his career when the first-time All-Star led the American League with 130 RBI while hitting .304 with 32 homers in his first full season. He hit four homers in the 2010 AL Championship Series and had a four-homer game at Baltimore in 2012.

Hamilton left the Rangers in free agency, signing a $125 million, five-year deal with the Los Angeles Angels before the 2013 season. He was recovering from shoulder surgery when the Angels traded him back to Texas in 2015 after his two injury-plagued seasons with Los Angeles. He played 50 games for Texas in 2015 but never again after he underwent surgery at least three times afterward.

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