The worst kept secret in the baseball world this year was that the 2020 Minor League Baseball season was not going to happen. Major League Baseball organizations have been planning around the idea that a season wasn’t going to happen. While I’m typing this the announcement has not been made official, but Baseball America is reporting they’ve been told by multiple sources that the announcement is coming later this afternoon.
It’s been easy to see coming for a while now. Minor League Baseball teams make their money on selling tickets and merchandise. Unlike their big league counterparts, they don’t have TV deals for over 90% of the teams, and the ones that do don’t have TV deals that bring in much money and are limited in their scope of availability. Without the ability to sell tickets in the United States with a pandemic running wild, keeping teams from allowing fans into ballparks, there was just no way for teams to operate and still be able to make payroll, even if the gameday staff were limited to just essential employees to put on games.
When you then toss in the fact that Major League teams are trying to find every single possible way to save money, and all of the logistics that would be required to have a Minor League Baseball season – it just doesn’t make sense. Between trying to follow all of the rules and regulations, the expense of testing 250 additional players, 50 additional staffers between the coaches, managers, medical people, etc – the cost likely didn’t justify the means, at least from ownership standpoint.
There’s a lot of backlash that happens now because of this. Minor League Baseball is still trying to keep 40+ teams from being eliminated by Major League Baseball, but that writing, too, seems to be on the wall. The question now is more about which teams are going to be eliminated from affiliated baseball rather than if it’s going to happen. When the news first broke last fall there was a list of teams who were being considered, but that list has reportedly changed since then. Many non-complex rookie-level teams are still expected to be on the list, but the full-season teams that were may have seen some changes. For the Reds affiliates, four of their teams were on the list – the Greeneville Reds, the Billings Mustangs, the Daytona Tortugas, and the Chattanooga Lookouts.
It’s possible that each of those teams has already played their final game of affiliated baseball. It seems very likely to be the case for both Greeneville and Billings. For Daytona and Chattanooga, as full-season teams who could fit into current regional leagues, there’s still some hope that they can be among the teams who get to stick around.
From a perspective of all minor league team owners and the employees of those teams who are still around – things just got a bit tougher to figure out. While it was likely that they all had a feeling this day was coming, now it’s here. Teams have been trying to utilize their ballparks to the best of their capabilities to host events that would bring in some revenue and allow them to continue to keep some people employed and remain involved in the community. That’s likely to continue, but with a guarantee that no games will be played now, plans certainly could change with how ownership may have to go about keeping people around the facilities.
For the players and coaches that aren’t a part of their big league player pool roster and coaching staff (organizations tapped into their development crew to help out with the larger than usual rosters and the fact that they are spread out over two places), it also means a lot of uncertainty. The players are still being paid $400 per week in most organizations (the Reds are doing so through September 7th – the longest such timeframe in all of baseball), but they also don’t have baseball games to play in. Well, unless they are willing to take the risk of signing up to play independent league baseball and can also get approval from their team to do so.
Players are left to work out and try to get reps in on their own in whatever town they happen to be in. Within the Reds organization, development staff is trying to work with the players through video meetings/conferences, but that’s not the same as being with them and playing in games, either. For the coaches and managers who aren’t in their respect big league city for the big league camps/season, what does this mean? Some organizations have furloughed much of their minor league staff already. With an official cancellation of the 2020 Minor League Baseball season, will other teams follow suit?
Communities all over the country are going to be without baseball for the first time in a very long time – likely for the first time in the lives of many. While it wasn’t unexpected for those of us truly in the baseball world, those who are more casual baseball fans rather than pure diehards, this announcement may be a bit surprising.
Update at 5pm ET
The season has been officially cancelled. Here’s the press release from Minor League Baseball:
Major League Baseball has informed Minor League Baseball that it will not be providing it’s affiliated Minor League teams with players for the 2020 season. As a result, there will not be a Minor League Baseball season in 2020.
“These are unprecedented times for our country and our organization as this is the first time in our history that we’ve had a summer without Minor League Baseball played,” said Minor League Baseball President & CEO Pat O’Conner. “While this is a sad day for many, this announcement removes the uncertainty surrounding the 2020 season and allows our teams to begin planning for an exciting 2021 season of affordable family entertainment.”
Minor League Baseball, which began as the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, was founded on September 5, 1901.