The Major League Baseball season is becoming quite counterproductive at the moment. With all these positive tests popping up in several team’s locker rooms, how can MLB keep a competitive schedule?
Major League Baseball has a problem on their hands. The season itself is only a week old. And it’s becoming quite the disaster. As well as a cumbersome puzzle to put together
Why has the 2020 season become difficult for Major League Baseball? Well, three more games have been postponed Friday, bringing the total 15 games. It’s falling apart quickly.
The postponement of three more games is a result of two St Louis Cardinals pitchers testing positive for COVID-19. While we do not have the names of the players that tested positive we do know that the Milwaukee Brewers and St Louis Cardinals are not playing today. So there’s that.
Which further complicates things schedule and health-wise for the MLB. How long do you isolate the Cardinals? Do you isolate the Brewers too? And do you contact trace to see if it’s only those two players? All valid questions MLB needs to ask.
On top of this new development, you have the Phillies and the Marlins. Both teams will miss seven games each because they have not played since last Sunday, and according to Rob Manfred will resume Monday.
This is a result of the Marlins having 17 players testing positive. Four players were positive last Sunday in the game against the Phillies. There’s also the Orioles and Yankees who missed some games as well.
It seems to me Rob Manfred made the wrong decision to play the 2020 season. As they say, hindsight is 20/20, but the model that the NBA and NHL have put in place seems to have resulted in no positive tests.
The bubble idea would have worked well in MLB too. Obviously, the success rate of the MLS and NWSL suggest this to be true. They should have divided the teams in the Arizona and Florida Leagues to give MLB a bubble.
The owners instead went with the “we have to make as much money as possible”, because no fans equals no gameday money. And the owners cried poor.
The only solution is to cut the teams that continue to test positive for COVID-19. Or have the teams put all of the positive cases in quarantine and have minor leaguers fill the spots. I mean, I guess that makes sense right?
The question is how competitive will this team be? As you replace Major League talent, the overall performance of the club gets affected. I mean, at what point are they done? When they run out of minor leaguers? Owners will not like this because that will put time on these players’ big league clocks. And owners will lose control of said players quicker and will have to pay them Major League money.
In conclusion, MLB should have gone with the bubble idea. Clearly, it’s the safest way to continue a season. Instead, the owners were greedy and didn’t really take into account player safety. Which is pretty upsetting because this should have been the main focus. Not money. But that is the business of sports.
Tyler Barger is a guest writer for Bat Flips and Nerds. Follow him on Twitter @SrBleachermobTB
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