St. Louis Cardinals: Looking at a clearer plan for the season

With the whole MLB in flux at the moment, some clarity has been found about a possible plan for the St. Louis Cardinals and the rest of the league to adjust the season.

Officially, the 2020 MLB season has been delayed only until May 10, however, there is not many who truly believe the St. Louis Cardinals or any other team would begin play on that date.

In all likelihood, the true start date will be sometime in June or July, but there are too many things up in the air right now to put a clear target on a date. If you think about it, just two weeks ago, the Cardinals were still playing spring training games. The daily landscape is changing very rapidly and keeping everyone’s safety at the forefront is the best way to struggle through all of this.

However, fans did get an update early Wednesday morning as to how the MLB and the MLB Players Association is handling this work stoppage courtesy of Jeff Passan of ESPN.com.

First off, there is a whole lot of article in this article. It’s very information-dense, but there are some really important things to pull from it.

The first of those is that from the players’ side, they are very open to doubleheaders, and lots of them. As Passan writes, “Multiple players told ESPN they are willing to play a significant number of doubleheaders — as many as two a week — to make up for lost games and try to get as close to a full 162-game schedule as possible.”

We may be missing baseball now, but if we start getting nine games a week, you better bet we will all get our fill. Of course, there would have to be expanded rosters in that instance, but that’s something Passan notes may happen anyway. In reference to spring training 2.0, “MLB could opt for an abbreviated second spring and instead expand rosters to allow teams to carry extra pitchers.”

No matter when baseball is cleared to start activities again, an entire four-week spring is not going to be an option. In the event that this second spring lasts just two weeks, allowing teams to carry extra pitchers will be a crucial addendum to the rules, if only for the first month or so. This will be especially important if there are multiple doubleheaders being played a week.

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Passan also included how minor leaguers are continuing to draw the short stick through all of this. While they will be paid $400 a week until April 8, there is not currently any mandate by the league to pay them anything after that date.

General Managers may “believe” that minor leaguers “will be paid at rates similar to their expected salaries for the immediate future,” but relying on the generosity of team owners at any point is a fool’s game. Even though these owners are unimaginably rich, they are getting hit by this baseball drought as well. Until games start again, teams aren’t making any money off of fans coming to the stadiums nor are they making money from their television contracts.

All of this will lead to a “potential multibillion-dollar shortfall” across the industry.

Passan included that the two sides (the MLB and MLBPA), are working to agree on a financial deal that will advance a portion of the players’ salaries, how to prorate salaries when the season begins again, what to do about arbitration, what to do about the draft and international signing periods, and more.

This is a very complicated situation, but the negotiations have been going on for about “10 days now,” and hopefully a decision is made soon.

There is always a “doomsday scenario” where no agreement is reached and the entire season could be canceled as a result. This would not be in anyone’s interest and would taint what should be a triumphant return of baseball to everyday life, whenever it happens.

On this Opening Day’s Eve, a different year would’ve made today one of the most exciting days of the year. Sadly, that is not currently possible. A deal made here will take a lot of weight off of the minds of a lot of people and would leave only one thing left to do: get back on the field and play when the time is right.