Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have reached a compromise on the issue that derailed Wednesday afternoon's discussions and led to more games being wiped off the 2022 schedule.

The sides will delay a final decision on the implementation of an international draft that would completely transform the way Latin American players enter professional baseball.

The owners' push for the draft came to a head Wednesday when they tied it to the elimination of draft pick compensation for free agents who receive a qualifying offer. That move, a union priority, would alleviate one of the forces that has discouraged spending on veterans.

A compromise reached Thursday will give the sides until July 25 to reach a deal on the draft. If they do, it would take effect in 2024, and the draft pick penalties would go away starting next offseason. If they cannot agree on the draft, both the international amateur market and the qualifying offer system would remain status quo.

The union rejected the international draft in a comprehensive proposal ahead of one of the league's latest self-imposed deadline to reach a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement and end the lockout in time to fit in 162 games. Seeking to overcome this hurdle before making a full counter, owners asked the union to choose between three options Wednesday night:

1. The addition of an international draft and the elimination of direct draft pick compensation.

2. Status quo from the outgoing CBA, which included draft pick penalties but no international draft.

3. Or the elimination of direct draft pick compensation now to get a deal done, and players would have until Nov. 15, 2022, to agree to an international draft starting 2024. If, at that point, the players still opposed the international draft, the CBA would be reopened after 2024.

Instead of choosing one of those paths, the union offered an alternative idea: Elimination of the draft pick compensation and players have until Nov. 15, 2022, to agree to an international draft. If they cannot agree, the international system stays at status quo and the qualifying offer system would return after the 2022-23 offseason. That eventually led to more talks Wednesday night, but came after the league's 6 p.m. deadline and so, for the second time in nine days, the commissioner’s office pulled games off the regular season schedule.

MLB officials say that resistance to an international draft stems from it historically being seen as a cost-cutting measure. They project that their proposed draft, consisting of 600 regular picks plus compensation selections with hard slots and guaranteed money, would funnel $17 million more to international amateurs than the current cap-restricted free agency system.

Prominent Latin American players, past and present, have voiced concerns about the change. And current players were perturbed by what they viewed as a hasty effort to get the international draft into the deal. A league official said that an international draft has been in every proposal MLB made since last July, though the union has also rejected it each time. Union executive subcommittee members Francisco Lindor and Max Scherzer weighed in on Twitter emphasizing that the asks around the issue changed in recent days.

With this obstacle cleared, the sides will again try to bridge economic gaps on the collective bargaining tax and pre-arbitration bonus pool. When the draft issue sidetracked talks, the players' offer included a CBT threshold starting at $232 million and escalating to $250 million over the life of the deal. The league's most recent offer started at $230 million and rose to $242 million. On the bonus pool, the league's most recent proposal is for a flat $40 million, while the union is at $65 million with the pool increasing by $5 million each season.

An agreement in the near future could make it possible to squeeze in 162 games in 2022 — and avoid the extra step of negotiating the length of the season and service time implications.