COVID-19 impact on MLB season

[Fear The Chorizo]

On the players side, this has alot to do with the fact they feel they and Tony Clark got owned in the last CBA negotiation, and they are adamant about looking like they get the better end of this round. The failure they have in public perception and with this approach now is this shortened season due to a pandemic shouldn't be like a CBA negotiation to get back on the field. They should have kept their powder dry for next offseason. Instead now they come out looking greedy going after a higher chunk of severely diminished league revenues this year and blew their position for next year's actual CBA negotiation - when getting even small concessions from owners next year would drastically improve their pocketbooks in the longterm.

 

The owners are likely to just tell Manfred to shut it down for 2020 very soon, I'm sure there are a handful that have already been telling Manfred as much.

[pacopete4]

I read the article and didn’t come away with thinking the players are in the wrong for their negotiations. I guess I’d you believe every word of the Commish you might but he’s a snake and will do what he can to paint a picture.

[SeaBass]

Sort of a bad look for fans to ever criticize the players for not putting themselves at risk during a global pandemic solely for our entertainment. We should be grateful they are negotiating at all.

 

They are the ones who want to play more games so yeah fans can criticize the players for this. If they were about not putting themselves at risk they would be advocating for less games but they are not. It is more about money than anything else.

I know right? As a baseball fan, the very last thing I want to see is more games being played.

 

LOL at the owners, trolling their own fan base over what will amount to a 5 game difference. The disturbing thing is how easily it works on some, because "players be greedy".

 

Owners in March "that wasn't really a done deal"

Owners in June "oh we thought it was a done deal"

 

LMFAOOO

 

What's frightening to me is the thought that the owners only went through the Manfred/Clark face to face charade so they could shut up the "When and where" movement that had them down for the count to turn around and paint themselves as martyrs when the players countered the offer. When counter offers happen in every single negotiation ever.

[jerichoholicninja]

Guys, neither side wants a 2020 season. The owners don't want to lose money and the players want to stick it to the owners so they can have the upper hand in the next CBA. Stop blaming one side over the other. They both suck.

[areacodes]

I read the article and didn’t come away with thinking the players are in the wrong for their negotiations. I guess I’d you believe every word of the Commish you might but he’s a snake and will do what he can to paint a picture.

 

If that is your opinion of Manfred, nothing in any article will paint the players in a bad light for you.

[pacopete4]

I read the article and didn’t come away with thinking the players are in the wrong for their negotiations. I guess I’d you believe every word of the Commish you might but he’s a snake and will do what he can to paint a picture.

 

If that is your opinion of Manfred, nothing in any article will paint the players in a bad light for you.

 

I’m not sure how anyone could have any other sort of an opinion on Manfred. He’s either a really terrible Commish that doesn’t care much about the actual sport or he’s a puppet for greedy owners that care more about making money. Pick one, he sucks either way.

[KeithStone53151]

I read the article and didn’t come away with thinking the players are in the wrong for their negotiations. I guess I’d you believe every word of the Commish you might but he’s a snake and will do what he can to paint a picture.

 

If that is your opinion of Manfred, nothing in any article will paint the players in a bad light for you.

 

I’m not sure how anyone could have any other sort of an opinion on Manfred. He’s either a really terrible Commish that doesn’t care much about the actual sport or he’s a puppet for greedy owners that care more about making money. Pick one, he sucks either way.

 

Considering Manfred is hired by the owners, it's fair to assume he's a mouthpiece for the owners. Right now, he's basically representing the position of the owners that hired him. You're basically shooting the messenger.

[owbc]

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/phillies/phillies-coronavirus-outbreak-clearwater-players-staff

 

8 positive tests in the Phillies camp...not good.

[Pugger]

I have a strong feeling there will be no baseball in 2020. There will be no contact sports of any kind until a vaccine and/or we develop herd immunity to this virus.

[owbc]

I have a strong feeling there will be no baseball in 2020. There will be no contact sports of any kind until a vaccine and/or we develop herd immunity to this virus.

 

I don't think any fall sports are going to happen. Pretty amazing to see the contrast in states with COVID going away vs. exponentially increasing right now.

[BrewFan130]

I’ve read articles and quotes from players stating that playing as many games as possible is the most important factor to them and they feel they should play 82 games as a minimum. They’re trying to play it as money is only a secondary concern. I’m calling bs! If that were so then, instead of countering the MLB at 70 games with 100% prorated salary they would have countered their offer at 88 games with 80% prorated salary, being that games played of the most importance to the players. Financially the 2 contract terms would work out to be the same.

If the MLB and MLBPA can’t work this out and play games in the 2020 season it’s going to cost them all a lot more in future seasons. The 1994 strike should be a guiding light for both players and owners. If fans stop showing up to the ballparks again it’ll cost owners and obviously players future contracts

[Jopal78]

I’ve read articles and quotes from players stating that playing as many games as possible is the most important factor to them and they feel they should play 82 games as a minimum. They’re trying to play it as money is only a secondary concern. I’m calling bs! If that were so then, instead of countering the MLB at 70 games with 100% prorated salary they would have countered their offer at 88 games with 80% prorated salary, being that games played of the most importance to the players. Financially the 2 contract terms would work out to be the same.

If the MLB and MLBPA can’t work this out and play games in the 2020 season it’s going to cost them all a lot more in future seasons. The 1994 strike should be a guiding light for both players and owners. If fans stop showing up to the ballparks again it’ll cost owners and obviously players future contracts

 

The Union already considered pro rata salaries as a concession. In a typical year if a player spent 140 games on the DL and 2 more games were rained out and not made up, they would still get their full salary despite playing in only 20 games. They are not going to take another cut, despite the fact they could make more overall money playing 75 games at 80% than 50 at 100%.

 

Some owners are going to really take a bath this season in terms of revenue, especially those who own the bars, restaurants, hotels, and other entertainment etc. around their stadium, those owners probably are fine with punting the 2020 season and at this point would be happy to avoid a grievance requiring them to lay out even more money in legal fees etc.

[adambr2]

I have a strong feeling there will be no baseball in 2020. There will be no contact sports of any kind until a vaccine and/or we develop herd immunity to this virus.

 

I don't think any fall sports are going to happen. Pretty amazing to see the contrast in states with COVID going away vs. exponentially increasing right now.

 

I think you guys are still viewing this from a March perspective when we thought there was a possible 3-4% mortality rate associated with COVID.

 

I'm pretty confident that the fact that there is very strong evidence that this is a lot less lethal than we had originally feared is definitely taken into consideration and is absolutely part of the reason we haven't really seen resumed lockdowns despite rising cases.

[umphrey]

Clearly the only solution is to spend a few weeks arguing that a 60 game season is too short and that we need an 82 game season which ends in October with 5-6 games per week

[owbc]

I have a strong feeling there will be no baseball in 2020. There will be no contact sports of any kind until a vaccine and/or we develop herd immunity to this virus.

 

I don't think any fall sports are going to happen. Pretty amazing to see the contrast in states with COVID going away vs. exponentially increasing right now.

 

I think you guys are still viewing this from a March perspective when we thought there was a possible 3-4% mortality rate associated with COVID.

 

I'm pretty confident that the fact that there is very strong evidence that this is a lot less lethal than we had originally feared is definitely taken into consideration and is absolutely part of the reason we haven't really seen resumed lockdowns despite rising cases.

 

Has nothing to do with mortality--the recent exponential growth in cases in many places is the problem which increases the odds of positive tests in locker rooms/clubhouses, thus throwing a huge wrench into sports. What if a college football team has positive tests a few days before the game? Do they forfeit? Or are they incentivized to hide the positives? Or do they just let every athlete/support staff contact COVID and if a couple of them experience complications or die (or their relatives die) then oh well, we'll pay off the lawsuits and move on.

[adambr2]

Absolutely the mortality rate has something to do with the current approach going forward with sports. You're telling me that if concerns from March hadn't been worst case and we were looking at a 5% incidence fatality rate, we wouldn't have called off all 2020 sports by now and be instituting widespread stay-at-home orders? Of course we would. If something isn't killing people you're going to be a lot less concerned about it spreading than if it was killing people at a high rate. H1N1 blew up enormously in terms of spread, but we didn't take major precautions to address its exponential growth. Why? Because it simply wasn't very lethal.

 

COVID is absolutely more dangerous than H1N1, but definitely far less than what we feared on March 15th. So does that come into play when determining if we need to shut something down when someone gets it or quarantine, contact trace, test, and move on? Certainly.

 

College sports is a little different than pro sports and I'm not sure we'll have any. But I wouldn't be surprised if we do. They are going forward with Northwoods League Baseball here in central Wisconsin, with special precautions. I don't know how to specifically answer what each individual sports organization will do when a team has players who test positive. Those scenarios will of course be planned for well in advance as to how they will be handled.

Edited June 19, 2020 by adambr2

[areacodes]

I read the article and didn’t come away with thinking the players are in the wrong for their negotiations. I guess I’d you believe every word of the Commish you might but he’s a snake and will do what he can to paint a picture.

 

If that is your opinion of Manfred, nothing in any article will paint the players in a bad light for you.

 

I’m not sure how anyone could have any other sort of an opinion on Manfred. He’s either a really terrible Commish that doesn’t care much about the actual sport or he’s a puppet for greedy owners that care more about making money. Pick one, he sucks either way.

 

Being a puppet or terrible at his job is different than calling him a snake. I didn’t even comment about his ability or anything along those lines (FYI - I think he is a poor commissioner). My only point was, if you go in viewing him as a snake - you aren’t going to see any fault with the players in their response.

[DuWayne Steurer]

All spring training facilities have been closed.

 

Whether or not the two sides agree on a schedule or whatever, I'd say we're getting perilously close to not having any baseball. Or Sports. Golf and NASCAR are a little more manageable I think. Baseball and football and basketball are completely different animals. Clemson football team has 23 players testing positive.

[CheezWizHed]

So if there is no baseball season, are the player contracts/arbitration years/minor league options "froze" or would someone like Zach Davies become a free agent now? Puts that trade in a bit different light if he is a FA.

[BradWI]

If it’s cancelled service time still counts per the March 26th agreement.

[JosephC]

There was an agreement back in March that a player would be credited with 2020 service time as the same amount that the player was credited with in 2019 if the season was cancelled.

 

IMO this would be a loss in terms of the Davies trade. Davies has 4+ years of service time, so he is controlled by the Padres for 2 more seasons (is not a free agent after this year). So the Padres lose a year of him, but the Brewers also lose a year of Lauer. Grisham had 60 days of service time last year, so add another 60 and he's up to 120 which is still short of a full season So if the season is cancelled, the Padres still control him for 6 more seasons. As best I can tell, Urias service time in 2018 was 34 days and 86 days in 2019. So currently he is at 120 days and the Brewers would control him for 6 more seasons. However, add 86 days to that and it puts him over 1 year, so now the Brewers only control him for 5 years instead of 6. So the Padres will not lose one of Grisham's seasons, but this costs the Brewers a year of Urias control.

 

Not that I mind any of this as I still like the deal from the Brewers perspective.

 

What I would be interested in is how Dodger and Red Sox fans view that Mookie Betts trade?

[nate82]

All spring training facilities have been closed.

 

Whether or not the two sides agree on a schedule or whatever, I'd say we're getting perilously close to not having any baseball. Or Sports. Golf and NASCAR are a little more manageable I think. Baseball and football and basketball are completely different animals. Clemson football team has 23 players testing positive.

 

While it could be an indicator the season won't happen but I believe the spring training facilities being closed are because of the uptick in COVID cases in Arizona and Florida. The teams will probably move their spring training facilities to their home ballparks.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Philles had several positive cases in their facility. I believe Blue Jays did as well.

[Pugger]

I have a strong feeling there will be no baseball in 2020. There will be no contact sports of any kind until a vaccine and/or we develop herd immunity to this virus.

 

I don't think any fall sports are going to happen. Pretty amazing to see the contrast in states with COVID going away vs. exponentially increasing right now.

 

I think you guys are still viewing this from a March perspective when we thought there was a possible 3-4% mortality rate associated with COVID.

 

I'm pretty confident that the fact that there is very strong evidence that this is a lot less lethal than we had originally feared is definitely taken into consideration and is absolutely part of the reason we haven't really seen resumed lockdowns despite rising cases.

 

I don't think this virus is as lethal as folks thought it was in March. It must be taken seriously by people who are at risk like older folks and those with pre-existing conditions. But it will be difficult to practice social distancing playing sports like baseball and especially football. I doubt there will be another lockdown even if cases continue to spike unless the hospitals are over run but I don't see that happening.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

MLBPA taking a vote today to decide if they want to accept MLB's 60-game proposal. To me, if they vote against it, it really makes that "when and where" stuff look like lip service.