Running home
As MLB works on plan to start season, here are the biggest questions the Orioles face
With Major League Baseball trying to finalize a plan to start the season amid the coronavirus pandemic, it seems guaranteed that concessions will need to be made on every side to get the game back in some form.
The Associated Press and others reported Monday that owners gave the go-ahead to making a proposal to the players’ union that could lead to the season starting around the Fourth of July weekend in ballparks without fans. Each team would play about 82 regular-season games, and postseason play would be expanded from 10 clubs to 14 by doubling wild cards in each league to four.
According to the AP, teams will propose that players receive a percentage of their 2020 salaries based on revenues MLB receives during the regular season and postseason, which will likely be the most contentious issue.
The league has already made the shortsighted move to save around $1 million per team in limiting the June amateur draft to five rounds, and it doesn’t seem to be ready to stop there. A group of players and possibly staff will be asked to risk their health during a pandemic for less than they previously agreed.
The general desire to get the game back in any form might provide cover for such hard negotiation tactics to work, however wrong that is. But most observers are just focused on what will happen when the game comes back, and what it will look like. With the Orioles, those questions are a little different.