The Major League Baseball season was supposed to start early this year: March 26. Obviously COVID-19 stopped that from happening. MLB made the best of it, promoting a big TV marathon for each team it called Opening Day at Home. But we all want a 2020 baseball season. Will there be a 2020 baseball season? Is it safe to have one? If so, what will a 2020 baseball season look like?
Safety and Possibilities
OK, so we can’t really answer the first two questions. At least, not completely. The best we can say is: maybe and maybe, respectively.
There might be a 2020 baseball season. It’ll depend on the operational details, which I’ll talk about below. But it’ll also depend on whether it’s profitable to have one. Team owners love the game, but they love the dollar, too. They’re in it to turn a profit. Team owners will only allow a season to proceed if they can make money off of it.
In terms of likelihood of having a season, the profitability question will drive things more than the safety question. I’m not making a cynical point about putting profit over safety. It’s simply that there are things teams could do to ensure safety, and it wouldn’t be terribly difficult to do those things: isolating players from their families and surrounding communities, frequently testing players and managers for COVID, et al.
It might not sound like fun – and the players might not like it – but it’s possible to do it. But we have little idea whether teams can stay afloat, and insurance likely covers a fair bit of their costs if they totally cancel the season.
What Would a 2020 Baseball Season Look Like?
And so, that leaves us with the question of what a 2020 baseball season would look like if we had one. The players want to play, but they’re concerned about their own safety, their families’ safety, and the fans’ safety. It’ll come down to whether there’s a plan to take these things into account.
Early discussions honed in on starting the season in May. But while no one officially pulled the plug on May baseball, it would require radical changes. No one really thinks it’ll happen. We’d need to see extensive COVID-19 testing and tracing for team employees, players, and umpires. We’d also see empty stands and likely the isolation of baseball to just a couple of cities.
Spring training sites in Arizona and Florida emerged as the likeliest of host cities. Teams have the infrastructure for professional baseball already in place, and they’re smaller sites away from large cities. Had MLB gone this route, they’d have paired a physical restructuring of this kind with a restructuring of the division system.
Season Length
It faded quickly.
Looking past May, ESPN examined the options and boiled it down to a few choices about the length of the season. They could play anywhere from a 32-game season to potentially as many as 100-140. A shorter season might maximize profits if there’s overwhelming public demand for baseball, while a longer season might carry major risks. Cramming 100+ games into July through October requires a lot of double-headers, risking injury and infuriating managers.
The postseason presents MLB with even more baseball options. It might end up being anything from just a World Series to a large, 16-team playoff to make up for the lack of a regular season.
The 2020 Yankees
I’m sure many of you know I’m a Yankees fan. I’ve covered them from time to time on this blog. And so, I can’t do a post on the 2020 baseball season without asking what’s going on with them.
Like everyone else, they’re coping with the current situation. They’ve got a few guys nursing injuries – Giancarlo Stanton near the end of the cycle and Aaron Judge in the middle. In sadder news, they’ve had some deaths. Anthony Causi, a veteran NYC sports photographer, died from COVID-19 back in April. And team co-owner Hank Steinbrenner died in April at age 63. Not from COVID-19, but rather from a long-term health issue. In the Steinbrenner – and New Yorker – tradition, he died in Florida.
