NEW YORK—In a “generous offer,” meant to bridge the gap between the two sides as contract bargaining negotiations stalled, Major League Baseball’s owners reportedly proposed Thursday that the agreement offer players college credit in lieu of salary. “While the owners strongly disagree with the MLBPA proposals on salary increases, and in fact paying salaries at all, they’re more than willing to compromise by offering all MLB players up to dozens of college credits per year,” said MLB deputy commissioner Dan Halem of the owners’ proposal, which would eliminate all monetary compensation from player contracts and replace it with applied hours of study that could enable MLB players to achieve a communications, criminology, or business management degree in as little as 18 months. “We believe that the negotiations thus far have been negatively impacted by this focus on revenue-sharing, when we really should be focused on sharing the benefits of a great education. The team owners of Major League Baseball absolutely believe that players deserve to be compensated for their play, from rookies to veterans, which is why they’ve put forth a very robust and very competitive tiered system of college credits. All rostered athletes will automatically be enrolled at San Diego State, and our 10-and-5 players will receive the exclusive right to work with an MLB-funded job placement service after their playing days are over to put their world-class education to good use.” Negotiators for the MLB emphasized that the owners were making a good-faith improvement on their most recent CBA proposal to pay players in experience.