MLB Owners clearly want all or nothing for rest of 2020

1 of 4

(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) /

It seems, MLB owners seem to be playing an all or nothing game with the 2020 season.

Now more than ever, the 2020 MLB season is at a crossroads. And now more than ever, it is equally clear that MLB owners might not actually want a 2020 season to happen.

For proof of this, fans need to look no farther than the MLB health and safety protocol released nearly two weeks ago, and the player compensation proposal released this week.

More from MLB News

The two documents understandably loom large in any conversation about baseball in recent days. Perhaps in large part because there is no actual baseball being played, but this story would be interesting even if MLB were in the NFL’s enviable position of not having even started their season yet.

However, lurking beneath the fascinating logistics and frustrating economics is the ugly truth that MLB could quickly find themselves painted into one of the darker corners in the game’s history.

The US economy has been decimated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Tens of millions are out of work, possibly facing financial ruin. It’s a fair bet some of those millions are sports fans, and that’s to say nothing of the thousands of stadium workers and hundreds of minor league players that are facing unemployment as well. Heartbreaking stories of loss like these fill up the headlines every day.

All while rich people argue over how rich they will continue to be in 2020.

It’s not what you want, as a baseball fan or baseball professional. Sure, the above sentence might be an unfair simplification. And yes, if you asked me to pick between Team Labor and Team Owner, at the end of the day I’m donning a Team Labor jersey every time. That doesn’t change the reality that the minimum salary for an MLB player is $563,000, and the average salary in the U.S might charitably be 10% of that. As for the billionaire owners, perceptibly dragging their feet on giving us one of our most cherished distractions? Saying public sympathy is nonexistent would be an understatement.

MLB needs a decision ASAP. For owners, it’s about image and the bottom-line. For players, it’s much more practical, both personally and professionally.

Ultimately, I think MLB is hoping for one of two outcomes, but willing to settle for a third. The first and best case scenario is that MLB is the only professional sport playing in 2020, with a close second being that no sports are played at all. If that ship sails though, it seems more than plausible to believe MLB has no interest in the 2020 season taking place at all.

Let’s take these in turn, starting with those dream options for MLB.

Home/MLB News