Most of MLB spring training begins this month with many players having already been shipped off to their respective Spring Training sites for early workouts.

This is the place to talk about anything baseball for the upcoming season, whether its to talk about your favorite team or player, or two talk about stats, projections, and rumors.

Well, the Red Sox cheated and need a new manager.

That sucks.

I'll have full predictions closer to the regular season, but for now, I'm mostly just wondering what the hell we're going to do. Really hoping we go internal and hire Jason Varitek.

legacyme3 : I'm pissed at the Mets in this scenario. It really seems like they did in fact fire Beltran as manger rather then a mutual parting like they say. But that means that the Mets were idiots for a number of reasons, especially making a case for not even asking him about the investigations and letting the possibility that he'd be suspended get a hold of their judgement.

A lot of things have happened since I last spoke in here, which is funny, because there's still no games on television.

With baseball in a standstill, the biggest concern right now is how free agents to be (like Mookie Betts) will be handled going forward.

There's a possibility out there, if the season doesn't happen, where Mookie Betts hits free agency, without having ever played for the Dodgers. Which would mean the Dodgers gave up a top 50 prospect, a former top 25 prospect, a backup catcher, and taken on David Price's contract, for nothing.

If I'm a Dodgers fan, I'm screaming right now, but if I'm literally any other team in baseball, I'm howling with laughter, because of course the Dodgers attempts at not losing yet again, go wrong.

The only question I have is would it affect only players who are pre free agency or everyone? One thing i read says that players who have contracts would not be affected. If they are, and anyone who's in their final year can walk if there's no season, that would create chaos.

Guys like Cespedes, DJ, Springer, Tanaka, etc.

zanderlex :

Everyone is going to become a free agent on that list. Cespedes, DJ, Springer, Tanaka... all of them.

If they were scheduled to be a free agent after 2020, and they were active in 2019, they will accrue a full year of service time, regardless of whether there is a season or not.

Right now, I don't know what to think of a quarantined season in Arizona.

It would be nice to have baseball back early but I don't know how they'd be able to pull off 30 teams at once in the same state. The schedule would be drastic, it would basically be Spring training schedules but 2 or 3 games per day at each park.

The quarantined season in Arizona won't actually happen is my opinion. Lot of players have already spoken out about not wanting to be away from their kids for that length of time, and the logistics don't add up.

What's the plan, to cram 30 teams worth of baseball talent, staff, and scouts and just have them all play on a few tiny fields?

Just cancel the season at that point. It won't be worth it.

legacyme3 : By the way, what will constitute being active? Cespedes hasn’t played at all last year for example. Does he get the year of service time despite not playing since like 2017 or does his 2020 salary apply to 2021?


Personally I think this is a dumb idea overall because so many players are going to end up making so much less as a free agent if they miss a whole year. This goes double for people who signed 1 year deals.

On the Mets look at guys like Betances, Porcello, Wacha. On average less than $10 million. With the $170 million advance, they would only get a fraction of their money and someone who got a $10 million one year deal is definitely going to get less than $10 million in 2021 if there’s no season.

zanderlex :

I'm not honestly sure what it means for Cespedes, he may have to be ruled on via arbitration. By the letter of the law, he wouldn't gain service time. However, because he's beyond the 6 years of service time... it doesn't matter. If he has 6, 7, 10, or 20, regardless, he's a FA eligible talent, so my guess is he's ruled by his contract. He would receive 6 million dollars in 2020, and then become a free agent.

legacyme3 : If there’s no season, I think he only gets $240,000. That would suck for him making that little and trying to get a good contract after being out for 2 years and then a 3rd year lost.

zanderlex :

I mean, part of it is that he lied about how he got hurt. Which is a breach of contract.

He's lucky to be employed at all right now.

And having looked up his contract:

*2019 salary reduced from $29 million to $22.9 million.

*Cespedes gets a $6 million base salary for 2020, but that will increase to $11 million if he doesn't start the season on the injured list with a foot or ankle injury.

*$9 million in incentives tied to plate appearances: $250,000 each for 200, 250, and 275; $500,000 each for 300, 350, 375, and 400; $750,000 each for 425, 450, and 475; and $1 million each for 525, 550, 575, and 650.

*$3.5 million in awards bonuses: $500,00 for All-Star Game selection; $750,000 for Gold Glove; $750,000 for Silver Slugger; $500,000 each for LCS and World Series MVP; $1 million for MVP win, $250,000 for second place, $100,000 for third place, $50,000 for fourth place, and $25,000 for fifth place.

*$2 million assignment bonus if traded to an American League team and $500,000 if traded to a National League team.

So it sounds like he'll get the 6 million dollar number, even if the season is missed entirely. The 6 million appears guaranteed.

legacyme3 : I’m talking about the salary advance.

Near the bottom of this story.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/what-would-an-all-arizona-2020-mlb-season-look-and-feel-like-paul-hoynes/ar-BB12hyX1

All players get $170 million to split and if there’s no season, the rest of their 2020 money is lost.

zanderlex :

Oh, right, forgot that in the event there was no season, the owners put in that backup plan to save their own skin.

Then yeah, he would be s*** out of luck, but at least be getting paid. He'd still be a FA.

legacyme3 : If he hits free agency he’s 100 percent out of luck. If he could just choose to use that 6 million in 2021 and have that be his final season, at least he could prove he can hit.

Other than that no team will even give him a fair contract after missing 3 years. If there’s no 2020 he’ll need like 3 months of extended spring training.

Right now I'm wondering what happens to LA if attended games begin later in the season.

If there is a season it would most likely start in ST stadiums but if they do migrate back to home stadiums eventually, are the Dodgers and Angels going to have to play every game on the road/in a neutral site?

zanderlex :

It's beginning to sound a lot like "every" game for every team will be played at a neutral site (if there's even baseball this year), if I'm being honest.

There's a lot of rush to open the gates back up and put people out, but we still haven't developed a vaccine and aren't even that close to releasing one. What's worse, having the antibodies doesn't even guarantee you will be fine. So odds are, people will go to games, get sick, and games will close up again.

It's a sad state of affairs, but the best thing may be to just cancel the 2020 MLB season, and focus on finding a solution for 2021.

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In other news, in my main dynasty league, I traded Austin Meadows (crying) for Willson Contreras, Josh Hader, and Mitch Keller. The league loves the deal for me, since I got three insanely talented players for a player with one season of being an all-star, but it still hurts. Meadows was my boy.

legacyme3 : Other than Arizona and Florida ST sites, what are other possible options for neutral sites?

Without classes in session, do you think some colleges could host games and teams stay in dorms?

zanderlex :

There really aren't many other options, since those are the states with the lowest general risk of infection, supposing no fans. The virus does appear to do worse in warm, humid weather. They could host games anywhere in the south in general.

It's entirely possible that colleges will host a game or two as needed, if there's any missed games, but I doubt they stay in dorms.

legacyme3 : Theorteically a college with one field could have a day game and a night game each day, therefore at least 4 teams could play out of 1 college.

Plus the colleges that forced people out of dorms were obviously required to refund room and board. That's a huge loss of money for them and I'm sure those colleges would love for teams to pay for players to stay there.

Missed games would most likely be played at the end of the season though right? Many schools hope to be open by then.