Major League Baseball, players union reach tentative agreement to salvage 2020 season

[Ceetar]

Lefty Specialist wrote: Players, coaching staffs and other essential personnel would be sequestered at local hotels, where they would live in relative isolation and travel only to and from the stadium, sources said. That doesn't sound like they could bring their families. And they wouldn't go anywhere but the hotel and the stadium. Sounds pretty draconian.

Maybe their families could could be included. maybe they should, to limit hotel personnel that would need to interact with them. It hasn't even reached the logistics stage, it's just a thought experiment.

Plus the idea is to get a jump on things. Maybe there will be no crowds of 50k people in 2020, but it easily be that quarantine does get lifted somewhere shortly after the end of 'spring training' and limits them less.

[kcmets]

As sad as it sounds, my vote and wager is no baseball season in 2020.

[Benjamin Grimm]

My hunch is that they'll think of something. It will be the weirdest baseball season ever, but I think we'll see something.



I think that MLB should buy out a resort (or many resorts) and house the players and their families. (The single players will be missing out on some extracurricular fun, but they should be missing out on that anyway right now.) I'm not sure how many resorts there are in Arizona, but I bet there are more than a few centered around golf.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Under the proposed plan, players would sit, not in the dugouts, but in the stands, sufficiently apart from each other to comply with social distancing.



Also:

Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler and his wife, Dominique, are expecting their first child in July. Wheeler said he could not endorse a plan that would keep him apart from them during the summer. “I couldn't even imagine missing the birth and just not being around and going ‘hey, I'll see you in December' or whenever it is,” Wheeler said. “That's not going to work.”

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, they have to find a way to accommodate families.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Here's another new idea:



https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2020/04/10/mlb-realignment-league-considers-radical-move-for-2020-season/5128935002/MLB considering radical realignment for 2020 season: Grapefruit and Cactus leagues



The Grapefruit League and the Cactus League would be "official" leagues this season. The divisions would be as follows:

GRAPEFRUIT LEAGUE NORTH: New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers, Pittsburgh Pirates. SOUTH: Boston Red Sox, Minnesota Twins, Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Rays, Baltimore Orioles. EAST: Washington Nationals, Houston Astros, New York Mets, St. Louis Cardinals, Miami Marlins. CACTUS LEAGUE NORTHEAST: Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, Oakland Athletics. WEST: Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Los Angeles Angels. NORTHWEST: Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers, Kansas City Royals.

The advantage here is that all teams would have their own home parks, at their familiar spring training facilities. There wouldn't be the congestion of trying to schedule 15 or more games per day on the few Arizona fields. Teams wouldn't be playing home games three time zones away from their home fans. (Okay, maybe some would, like the Reds and the Indians. Too bad for them.)



The World Series would be Cactus League vs. Grapefruit League instead of American League vs. National League. The DH would be applicable in all games.

[metsmarathon]

i rather like the sound of that, actually.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I do too. The all-DH sucks, and it would probably be a gateway to it happening permanently, but that seems to be inevitable anyway.



I assume that the spring training facilities would have the capacity to house the players' families too, which is another bonus.

[Guest 41Forever]

I like it a lot better than playing all the games in Arizona.

[Willets Point]

I like this plan too. I assume there will be "bye" days since there's an odd number of teams in each league.



I was already thinking that it would make more sense with one league in Florida and one league in Arizona (whether it's American and National or Grapefruit and Cactus).



I think trying to play a full season or close to a full season is overly ambitious. Playing so many games with lots of doubleheaders will put a lot of strain on everyone involved and no room for postponements (for weather or for pandemic emergencies). I think if each league basically plays a round-robin with a team facing each other team 6 times (a 3 game "home" series and a 3 game "away" series), you could get an 84-game season that would fit in from mid-June to the end of September with flexibility for postponed games. Then play the postseason in October as usual.

[Benjamin Grimm]

They could get more games in by playing the regular season through November and the post-season in December. (Someone somewhere floated that idea.) One of many problems with that is that if the season ends in late December, the teams that go deep into the playoffs would only have a little over a month off before it's time to report to spring training again.



But maybe regular season through October and postseason in November.

[Willets Point]

Yeah, I just don't think extending the regular season past September is a good idea (for many reasons - health of players, staff & families, short offseason, the likelihood of a "second wave" of COVID-19 in the autumn, et al). If there's going to be baseball this season I'm of the opinion that we're going to have to accept a significantly shortened season.

[G-Fafif]

Extended Spring Training takes on a new meaning.

[Frayed Knot]

That 15 teams per 'league' thing would be a significant obstacle to overcome, particularly so because you'd have an idle team every day exactly when you're trying to make up for lost time.

The only way around it would be goofy ideas like split DH's where the home team plays one team in the day portion and a different team in the nightcap*. And you'd need to have one of those

several times per week at at least one of the parks which turns traveling and scheduling into a nightmare.











* A sadly underused and almost archaic term in today's era

[Benjamin Grimm]

Well, there wouldn't be much traveling, since each division will cover a relatively small geographic area. But yeah, you would have to have a series of split doubleheaders. There's a disadvantage to the team that's playing two games that day when their opponents are only playing one, but you'd have to make it so that happens to each team an equal number of times.

[Edgy MD]

Ways to solve the 15-per league problem.

• Sure. Byes. Whatever. We'll all need rest, and a team getting a few bye days can get medical workups.



• Still have interleague play, under the notion that we've advanced to the point where one team every three days flying with their self-contained group on a private jet through private airports is a manageable risk.



• Return to 16 teams in one league and 14 in the other, possibly by setting up a central team (Cleveland? Kansas City?) with some temporary digs in Florida.



• Expand by two teams. Maybe the teams debut in their home cities (Norfolk? Montreal? Nashville? San Antonio? Portland?) next year or maybe the disappear after one abbreviated season), but Rob Manfred wants to expand to 32 anyhow.
  
  
  
  Imagine the fun if two homeless teams are actually playing in the big leagues and America is having a reality show where multiple cities are trying to make them their own.

[Willets Point]

I have no problem with the teams taking a 3-day bye in rotation over the course of the season. If a central team is moved to even up the leagues it should be Milwaukee or Houston.

[Edgy MD]

The Dodgers were in Florida so long that it would be kind of nifty if they returned to Vero Beach.

[Benjamin Grimm]

If I were to move one team it would be the Reds or the Indians so that they could play in their home time zone

[nymr83]

I agree Dodgers to Vero Beach would be the most "fun" move, but Indians or Reds make more sense as far as playing games when your fans can more easily watch.



Universal DH would be a hard pill to swallow because you know it would soon become permanent.

[Willets Point]

The current speculation is that there will be no concerts or sporting events until Fall 2021. I'm thinking the chances of seeing baseball this year are approaching nil.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yet Dr. Fauci says that sports can start sooner rather than later, but without an audience.

[Chad ochoseis]

Since the games wouldn't be in front of fans, time zones wouldn't have to be an issue. The Indians and Reds could just play their "home" games at 4:00 AZ time.



The one concern there is that 4PM in the summer in Arizona is seriously hot. But if they decide to play in Arizona during the summer, heat is going to be an issue no matter what time they play.



Is Chase Field an option for afternoon games?

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, probably. They could probably get three games in per day there.

[LWFS]

At this difficult time, it's important to remember to make sure that nobody gets an extra year of service time who absolutely, positively

hasn't earned it.

[bLOCKQUOTE]Gov. Cuomo said on news tonight he spoke with Jeff Wilpon. Cuomo advocated MLB season take place with no one in stands because it would be good for country to watch. Cuomo said response was that it would require a reduction in player salaries to offset lack of attendance.[/bLOCKQUOTE]

While I'm certain other owners are going to raise similar concerns... it's comforting to know that some people-- even in the face of previously-unimaginable crisis-- remain so fucking on-brand.



(From his brother's show on CNN. About right, judging from the clip I heard.)

[ashie62]

Where sports meets fantasy

[Frayed Knot]

While I'm certain other owners are going to raise similar concerns...

The other owners are not just going to have the same concerns, they are all going to do the same thing. The question remains, what that 'thing' is.



When the owners & players agreed to stop ST and put the brakes on the not-yet started season (iow, the agreement which triggered the beginning of this thread) that agreement included a stipulation that the

two sides would "discuss in good faith the economic feasibility of playing games in the absence of spectators or at appropriate substitute neutral sites". iow: more talks to follow since you couldn't

even discuss specifics back in March because no one knew (or still knows) what the future looked like at that point.



To the owners this means a negotiation to be had on pay structure in an altered economic landscape. Not surprisingly Scott Boras sees it differently. He thinks any talk about economics is limited to whether

they play or don't play, but if they play the players expect to get paid at the same rate and that the clubs didn't bring it up the possibility of a reduced rate during the March talks because they knew it would

be a non-starter for the union.

MLB estimates that the clubs get about 40% of their revenue from tickets and related income (parking, concessions, etc.) all of which would obviously be lost in games are to be played in empty stadiums so

a big hit to the clubs. And then there are the complications of what to do if playing in smaller and/or neutral parks where attendance will surely be lower. And how long will empty parks be needed, and

supposing some cities/states approve of gatherings prior to others.



So there will be a ton of moving pieces to consider and it's quite possible that the old money issue will be, in addition to Covid, the factor which sinks the season entirely.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Apparently now there's yet another option being considered. They may now play games in three different states: Florida, Arizona and Texas. I don't know if that means there would be three leagues or how the teams would be distributed. I suppose it might make sense for the teams play in the central time zone to be situated in Texas. But this seems like a weird alternative to the cactus league / grapefruit league suggestion we had previously seen

[Benjamin Grimm]

The virus isn't the only obstacle to having a baseball season. Money, of course, is the other.



This article from the Boston Herald spells it out pretty well:



https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/04/27/mlb-wont-be-back-until-it-makes-dollars-and-sense-for-owners-and-players/MLB won't be back until it makes dollars and sense for owners and players



I wonder if it would be possible to leave it up to individual players? Those who are willing to play for a reduced salary can play and those who are not would sit out and get their 4%, which is all they would get if the season was canceled entirely. So those who have expressed objections, like Mike Trout, Clayton Kershaw, and Zack Wheeler, can sit out and those who say "I wanna play!" can play. It would just be one more element of weirdness on a very weird season.

[metsmarathon]

here's a proposal. maybe scale the players salaries and owner profits proportionally to league profits.



maybe make the hits bigger on the higher paid players thna on the lower end.



like, maybe the league minimum player still gets half his salary, but guys at the top get 25%, and the owner's profit gets cut down to like 10%. some shit like that.



the league will be healthier if the better-paid players take a salary hit, and if the owners take a profit hit, than it would be to skip a season outright. imo.