Yankees: MLB’s Newest Proposal is Bad Sign for 2020 Season

MLB seems barely closer to 2020 action after the owners’ latest proposal for a season.

The most important week for the future of the 2020 MLB season that we’ve had in a long time went off with the biggest of hitches. While many fans held out hope that the Yankees’ timeline of a July 4 return was semi-realistic, given the fact that teams had begun preparing their spring camps, and both sides had seemed willing to make concessions from their initial positions, ownership’s idea of a Plan B dropped Tuesday, and nary a player seemed satisfied.

When revenue sharing proved to be a nonstarter, MLB owners instead prepared to institute a massive pay cut on a sliding scale, hitting the league’s elite stars the hardest.

Unfortunately, with a new CBA to negotiate in full following the 2021 season, ownership has now pitted high-earning players against each other, leading to the type of discord they were surely hoping to take advantage of, but certainly not paving the way for harmony in 2020.

And, if money was your only concern, we have some more cold water to pour on the proceedings: players don’t exactly seem keen to agree on the health and safety aspects of 2020, either.

This remains a nearly impossible exercise that, for the reputation of both sides of this debate, must end with some sort of a face-saving agreement.

Is it possible that this monetary fight is simply a bit of bluster to cover for the fact that an 82-game season (as well as a postseason scheduled to be threatened by a potential second wave of the coronavirus) might not be wise or safe in any capacity? Sure. But with the NHL and NBA poised to announce their return plans, fans are taking baseball’s continued lack of cooperation at face value, and the league’s reputation is plummeting.

Things are getting desperate.