Looking at the Major Points of MLB's Latest 2020 Season Proposal.
Today is May 12th, 2020 and your Pittsburgh Pirates are still in first place in the NL Central! The bad news is, so is every other team because no one has played a single game to this point. MLB Spring Training has been shut down since the middle of March when the Coronavirus pandemic hit the United States the hardest. Ever since then, MLB, the MLB Owners, and the MLB Player's Association have been working to find a safe way to bring baseball back to the fans as quickly as possible. Several different proposals have been thrown out there by all three sides, but the one that is gaining the most traction was proposed to the owners on Monday.
The new proposal has a couple of key points including the fact that the teams will play an 82-Game season, implementation of a universal DH, and a revenue-sharing plan that helps account for the loss of money due to no fans during the 2020 season. The plan will run by the MLB Player's Association and, if approved, we could see baseball back on our television sets across the country by the July 4th Weekend. There would be a two to three week Spring Training period in early June before teams would officially get things started. We will now take a look at some of the key bullet points of the plan and how they affect the 2020 Pittsburgh Pirates.
1. Teams Would Play an 82 Game Season
We obviously knew that teams would be unable to play a full 162 game season, but several different numbers for the number of games played have been bounced around. Under the latest proposal, teams would play an 82-game season starting in early July and running through the end of September. All games would be played in the team's home stadiums if government and health officials allow, and the teams would only play opponents in their geographical region. While for some teams this means they will face similar opponents, for the Pirates it will completely shake-up their 2020 schedule giving them a new set of opponents.
The Pirates would face teams from the NL East and AL East during the 82-Game season taking away some tough, but familiar, opponents. The Pirates would no longer match up with the Reds, Cardinals, Cubs, and Brewers, but would instead see the likes of the Mets, Nationals, Yankees, and Red Sox. The Pirates were sorted into the East region, as they should be, to help limit travel. The move is both exciting and concerning for the Pirates 2020 season. Over the last three seasons, the Pirates have been very good at interleague play, however, their record against NL East opponents has not been the best.
In each of the last three seasons, the Pittsburgh Pirates have had a winning record against Interleague opponents. In fact, the Pirates have the best interleague record in all of Major League Baseball going 77-47 over the last seven seasons. That is the second-best Interleague record of any team in MLB behind the Boston Red Sox, who went 83-40 when interleague play started in 1997. However, the Pirates are going from roughly 20 games a year against American League teams to nearly 41 games a season. And, they are set to take on the toughest American League Division, the American League East. Over the last three seasons, the Pirates have gone 7-9 against AL East opponents, with their best record coming against the Yankees (2-1).
On the NL side of things, the Pirates would have to face opponents from the NL East, the division they played the worst against last season. In 32 games against the NL East last season, the Pirates ended up going 11-21 in those games. The only team from the NL East that the Pirates won't play is the Atlanta Braves, and we made sure not to count those games in the record. The Pirates enter the 2020 season as a young team, so anything can happen. I personally feel like this group is going to surprise a lot of people, but I don't necessarily think they are a playoff-caliber team by any means. I can see them picking up some big wins throughout the season but, under the new proposal, I would put the Pirates 2020 record somewhere around the 38-44 mark. I see the Pirates taking a step forward in 2020, but not enough to get them over the .500 mark.
2. Universal Designated Hitter
This is the point that has many baseball fans interested in the new proposal. The designated hitter was implemented in the American League in 1973 and has been a topic of debate ever since. The National League has not adopted the DH in their league, but it is looking like that will finally happen in 2020. With interleague play becoming the norm, teams don't want to have to jump back and forth between American and National League rules, and it will help keep pitchers off the injured list throughout the season. While this part of the deal leaves many other teams scrambling for a DH, I feel the Pirates have this part of the game covered.
Josh Bell's first base defense has been questioned ever since he made his MLB debut in 2016. The universal DH rule allows the Pirates to get his glove off the field while keeping his bat in the lineup. It also leaves a hole at first base, which the Pirates can easily fill with prospect Will Craig. The Pirates have been looking for a path that brings Craig to the MLB, but he has been continually blocked by Bell and several other players around the Pirates roster. It gives the Pirates two solid power bats in the lineup, making the middle of their order that much stronger. As with any prospect, there are questions whether or not Craig's bat would transition to the MLB, but that is a risk I'm willing to take.
If the Pirates don't go with the Craig/Bell option, I would say their next best bet for a Designated Hitter would be Gregory Polanco. With rosters set to expand to 30 active players and a taxi roster of 50 players throughout the season, there will be plenty of guys to fill in the gap in right field. Polanco has had a history of getting injured and setting him as the DH limits some of the injury risks. Polanco has shown strong power numbers in his career, and a move to DH would help him work on that part of his game. Then, you could have guys like Jason Martin, Guillermo Heredia, and maybe even prospects like Jared Oliva to fill those holes. This would help improve the Pirates defense while keeping power bats in their lineup.
3. Players and Owners Take a 50-50 Revenue Split
This is perhaps the biggest obstacle to starting the 2020 MLB season as the Players and Owners work out the financials. Under the new plan, the players and owners would split their pay based on the amount of revenue the league generates throughout the season. With one of the biggest sources of revenue gone with fans not being allowed in the ballparks, owners are feeling the squeeze suffering financial losses in the millions of dollars. Under the new plan, the players and owners would be paid based on the amount of money teams make through things like TV contracts and playoff incentives.
Personally, I think this is a fair deal with 2020 being a peculiar season as it allows MLB to make up for their losses. If accepted, it would be the first salary-cap like implementation in Major League Baseball. The MLB is the only professional sports league in America that has not yet adopted a salary cap, and personally, I think it is time that they adopt it. A salary cap would stop teams from being able to "buy" their way to the World Series. Teams in larger markets with more financial resources have an advantage over smaller market teams. Free agents usually go to the highest bidder and, if a team like the Yankees or Dodgers wants a guy, they can simply go out and pay him. This leaves teams like the Pirates out of luck when it comes to big-name free agents.
A salary cap would eliminate this problem, and give all teams a shot at getting the biggest names in the free-agent market. It would take away the discrepancy between the top teams in the league and the bottom teams in the league. We would no longer see the 300 million dollar contracts and some of the top players in the league would have to take lesser contracts. While some players wouldn't be happy with that move, I feel that it would make the game more competitive and allow new teams to be able to compete for the World Series every single year.
While I don't think the players are going to approve this new proposal, there is always that chance that everyone gets along and we will have baseball in 2020. Whatever way the MLB decides to restart the 2020 season, the safety of the players, coaches, stadium personnel, and fans must be taken into account. I feel out of the proposals out there, this one is the best and lays out the best opportunity for MLB to being their season safely. We will see how the meeting with the Player's Union goes today but hopefully, the MLB season happens sooner rather than later.
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