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As recently as June, the concept of an expanded Arizona Fall League was under consideration by Major League Baseball. But MLB has now decided to cancel the AFL’s 2020 season, Josh Norris of Baseball America reports.

The AFL is the latest baseball league to fall victim to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has cut this year’s major league season of 162 games to 60 and has canceled the minor league campaign.

Because there’s no minor league ball, teams have placed many of their best young players in their 60-man pool and allowed them to train at their alternate sites. Some of those players will enter their teams’ playoff bubbles or join the fall instructional league. That’s among the reasons there will not be an AFL season this year, per Norris, who adds that MLB had concerns over whether the AFL’s usual sites would have been equipped to handle all of the players, coaches and staff members on each team during a pandemic.

For now, the hope is that the coronavirus will not prevent the 2021 AFL season from occurring. The league’s planning on a normal year then with six teams of 35 players apiece, according to Norris.

Legendary hurler Tom Seaver has passed away, Bill Madden of the New York Daily News reports. He was 75 years of age.

Seaver had recently suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. The Hall of Famer spent time as a broadcaster after wrapping up his playing career and ultimately founded Seaver Family Vineyards.

Over two full decades of excellence at the game’s highest level, Seaver compiled 4,783 innings of 2.86 ERA pitching. He claimed three Cy Young awards and still stands as one of the best pitchers of all time.

Seaver will always be remembered most for his dozen-year run with the Mets, which covered all of his very best seasons. His greatest campaign, perhaps, was a monumental 1971 effort in which he ran up a 1.76 ERA with 9.1 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9 over 286 1/3 frames.

In full, Seaver worked to a 2.57 ERA in over three thousand frames in a Mets uniform. The quality continued over a half-dozen campaigns in Cincinnati. Seaver contributed over a thousand innings of 3.18 ERA ball to the Reds before spending one more season with the Mets and then moving on to the White Sox.

Impressive as he was at his peak, the full measure of Seaver’s excellence is revealed in his ongoing effectiveness even at the tail end of his career. Seaver was one of the twenty or so best pitchers in baseball in his age-40 season with the White Sox, when he worked to a 3.17 ERA in 238 2/3 innings. The legend was dealt to the Red Sox in the middle of the ensuing season, which turned out to be his last.

7:01pm: An agreement has been reached, per Jeff Passan of ESPN. Seven-inning doubleheaders will take effect Aug. 1.

6:12pm: Major League Baseball and the union are moving toward an agreement on 2020 doubleheaders, Ken Rosenthal and Jayson Stark of The Athletic reports. If the two sides reach a deal, doubleheaders would consist of a pair of seven-inning games, but it would only be for this year, according to Rosenthal and Stark.

The idea behind this would be for teams to preserve their pitchers, per Rosenthal and Stark, and it could give every team a better chance of finishing its 60-game schedule during a pandemic-shortened season.

Teams such as the Marlins, Phillies, Yankees and Blue Jays have already seen their scheduled heavily altered just a week into the season because of coronavirus concerns. Neither Miami nor Philadelphia has played at all this week, and neither will take the field again until Tuesday at the earliest. As a result, they’ll have plenty of ground to make up over the next several weeks. Seven-inning doubleheaders could make it easier for them to catch up.

It seems that Major League Baseball would prefer to avoid a repeat of the Astros’ sign-stealing debacle, a scandal that only worsened when individual players escaped punishment due to a lack of a punitive framework and an exchange of immunity for information.

There’s a new structure for dealing with such matters, should they arise in the future, according to Evan Drellich of The Athletic (subscription link). MLB and the MLB Players Association have agreed to a series of rules that are designed to foreclose the round of controversy we’ve seen recently from the Astros and other teams.

The key here is that the commissioner’s office now has authority to impose suspensions — without pay and service time — against players and personnel. Punishment can be assessed upon a violation of the broad prohibition of utilizing “Electronic Devices or Visual Enhancement Devices during the game to identify, communicate or relay the opposing club’s signs or pitch information.”

There are some added protections for players. They’ll get union representation while the league investigates. Much as in the context of the domestic violence policy, the league will start fresh in terms of precedent for suspension lengths (at least for players). It’ll all be subject to appeal and final determination  by a neutral arbitrator.

The league is also stepping up its monitoring and enforcement mechanisms. The video review rooms will be isolated and communications strictly limited; ultimately, cameras will watch over the proceedings. Trained security professionals from a third-party vendor will watch the door to the doors even to the clubhouse; notably, they’ll be given authority to document and even confront any players or personnel that violate rules such as the ban on in-game cellphone access.

For the time being, players will not be able to watch any kind of live or video feed during a game that features an angle of action that would reveal signs. That will ultimately change, but the league needs time to sort out a system for blotting out signs in the feeds its players will be allowed to access.

It’s all a game of whack-a-mole to some extent, but there’s a key backstop now — a clear threat of suspension — that was lacking previously. The new system is a reflection of the inadequacy of the old one. It would be an improvement if it could ferret out and adequately punish cheaters, but the league hopes for more. If this slate of initiatives really works, the likelihood of being exposed and fear of significant punishment will prevent would-be rule-breakers from even trying.

MLB’s pro scouts are itching to get back in the ballpark, but it sounds like they’ll have to wait. The 2020 campaign will begin without live scouts, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link).

This is a disappointment for those who’d hoped to see baseball’s birddogs occupying otherwise all-but-empty ballparks during the television-only season launch. They will just have to keep watching film for the time being.

There is a glimmer of hope here. Per Rosenthal, Major League Baseball will consider loosening the restrictions once the campaign is underway. Presumably, it wouldn’t be especially challenging to allow entry from a logistical standpoint. Doing so might even offer an opportunity for teams to shake down their protocols for potential reentry of live spectators.

The broader worry from some segments within the game is the long-term fate of in-person scouting. Baseball America’s Josh Norris recently examined the matter in full. Getting looks on video certainly trims costs, though most scouts believe live attendance is crucial to their job.

In what amounts to a statement of optimism, Major League Baseball has decided to announce the schedule for the 2021 season much earlier than is usual — and before the current campaign has even begun. Each team’s Twitter account has provided the relevant schedule, for those that want a closer look.

The plan is for Opening Day to take place on April 1st, with every team launching play on the same day. The regular season would run through October 3rd, assuming no interruptions.

As you’d expect, the 2020 season’s unusual scheduling provisions are going to be a one-time approach. The typical breakdown of games will be utilized in 2021. Interleague play will be geographic, with the respective East, Central, and West divisions playing one another.

There’s no indication as of yet as to what kind of attendance expectations the league has. Needless to say, that will depend upon quite a few as-yet-unknown developments in the interim.

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In a typical MLB season, many former big leaguers are kicking around in the upper minors and independent leagues, ready to grab an opportunity when one arises. In a 2020 campaign that won’t feature any minor-league play, that won’t quite be the case. While many players will be participants in MLB 60-man player pools, not all potentially worthwhile candidates landed a spot.

Accordingly, there has been chatter about a small, unaffiliated, two-team “league” in which former big leaguers and upper-level minor-leaguers would play. The players would stay fresh and gain a showcases opportunity.

It turns out that the idea wasn’t driven by Major League Baseball, as Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic explains in an interesting report. The Nashville Sounds, presently the Triple-A affiliate of the Rangers, arrived upon the concept as a way to generate some revenue. It’s a whole different model from a typical affiliated minor-league club, more akin to an independent league effort.

The plan is for two teams of 22-man rosters to compete during the MLB season. In conjunction with the organization More Than Baseball, the Sounds are working on non-traditional means of bringing in revenue, including crowd-sourced payments and various media concepts. It seems there’s some possibility of R.A. Dickey and/or Ben Zobrist — long-time MLB regulars that live nearby — appearing in some form or fashion.

It’s both an appealing and complicated undertaking for a variety of reasons. It certainly could function as a service to out-of-work players. But there are risks, too. Traditional injury concerns are present along with pandemic-related health issues, all without the deep pockets of Major League Baseball. Ensuring fair player compensation and protection will be tricky. Dealing with mid-“season” roster changes could introduce new challenges.

You’ll want to read the entire article to understand the full scope of the effort. It certainly sounds as if those involved are pursuing this with good intentions and strong player engagement. But translating those positive vibes into a worthwhile campaign will certainly be tricky.