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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.

Even as it deals with early coronavirus testing stumbles, Major League Baseball has unveiled significant aspects of its 2020 schedule. You can find the full slate at MLB.com.

As is evident from a brief scan of the schedules, this won’t be a typical season. Even beyond the shortened format, there’s a notable realignment of the regular season. Opening Day is July 23rd.

Two-thirds of the contests will occur against division rivals, but each of those series will be unbalanced in terms of the home-park mix. The remainder of the contests are interleague affairs between teams of corresponding geographic divisions.

Teams are releasing information in a bit of an ad hoc manner, it appears, with MLB Network revealing the series matchups and clubs following up with specific dates and times. Obviously there could be quite a lot of modification as the season goes on, depending upon the course of the coronavirus pandemic in various localities.

You may have noticed recently that we’ve closed the comments section on MLBTR posts relating to COVID-19.  I’ve taken this temporary measure because the discussions have too often become toxic.  Moderating arguments in the comments is not a good use of time for our writers.

We plan to take a few days to amend our commenting policy and our system for enforcement, and then we’ll re-open comments on most posts.  In the meantime, the comments are open on this post, and I’d appreciate your feedback and ideas.

MLB and the MLB Players Association have jointly announced the results of the initial round of coronavirus testing. The league says that 31 players and seven staff members tested positive out of 3,185 total people tested.

At first glance, the ~1.2% rate of positivity is lower than might have been feared. It does not appear that any previously identified cases are included in the numbers, but the results seem generally promising regardless.

That said, the results also highlight the ongoing challenges. Nineteen of thirty teams had at least one positive test. While the idea was to catch any incoming infections before they could spread, that ratio goes to show the extent to which the virus could yet permeate the league if it’s able to gain any footholds.

Clearly, baseball isn’t out of the woods yet when it comes to successfully staging a 2020 season. But it was possible to imagine a world where a large volume of positive tests would’ve thrown up an immediate roadblock.

There are some caveats here. It is not entirely clear, but stands to reason that the league was testing for active infection. Some players may already have recovered from an infection. When comparing to nationwide numbers, it’s important to understand the distinction. Then there’s the fact that all MLB participants just undertook travel, which could pose risk of later-emerging infections that weren’t yet evident upon arrival.

Having a reasonably manageable starting point certainly represents an important first step. But the real work is yet to come. Preventing the introduction of new sources of infection will require near-universal precautions for the duration of the season.

Following yesterday’s decision of Minor League Baseball to cancel the 2020 season, the affiliated Mexican League has followed suit. In an official announcement, the 16-team circuit says it will not attempt to launch play this year.

While it’s obviously disappointing to see Mexico’s top league on ice, the announcement makes clear the decision was made for good reason. Health and safety priorities rendered a campaign untenable, the league says.

No doubt this decision was driven in large by an anticipated inability to generate significant revenue without regular paid attendance. Expanding the income possibilities through television and other media initiatives rates as a priority for the league, the announcement goes on to specify.

Despite the bad news, the Mexican League sounded a rather upbeat tone. Players and umpires will receive financial support, though to what extent isn’t specified. And the league says it’ll use the time off to work on various changes to secure the long-term viability of the business.

8:31pm: Cooper now tweets that minor-league players will need to receive authorization from their team before joining an indy ball roster. But he adds that the expectation is that many teams are amenable to doing so.

7:12pm: Wondering what’ll happen to those minor-league players who weren’t named to MLB teams’ 60-man player pools? While teams are paying stipends to those minor-leaguers they’ve retained, those players’ contracts were formally suspended.

Accordingly, as J.J. Cooper of Baseball America reports, Major League Baseball has determined that clubs lack grounds to prevent minor-leaguers from signing on with independent league outfits. The inverse is also true: MLB teams can’t encourage players to sign on with indy clubs. The situation is different for 40-man players, as MLB contracts were never declared suspended.

As a practical matter, relatively few players will likely end up landing new gigs. The independent leagues aren’t generally rolling in cash, needless to say, and their revenue stream faces even greater challenges than those of MLB teams since in-person attendance is the whole ballgame. Those that are cobbling together 2020 seasons obviously won’t be at full tilt.

That said, the appeal is obvious for players, many of whom would surely make a buck for playing ball rather than sitting dormant and losing a year of development. The calculus would obviously change if there’s some sort of minor-league season to speak of — a decision that could soon be made.

At the same time, there’s obviously some risk in playing outside the affiliated ranks. The controlling MLB team wouldn’t necessarily be on the hook for any injuries or health issues that may arise. And it’s an open question whether an otherwise available team stipend would be withheld from a player earning money for playing baseball in an unaffiliated uniform.

As our sister site Pro Hockey Rumors celebrates its four-year anniversary, we’re looking to add to the writing staff!  In particular, we’re seeking someone with strong daytime availability Monday through Friday.  The position pays hourly.  The criteria:

• Exceptional knowledge of all 31 NHL teams, no discernible bias.
• Knowledge of the salary cap, CBA and transaction-related concepts.
• At least some college education.
• Extensive writing experience, with professional experience and a background in journalism both strongly preferred.
• Keen understanding of journalistic principles, ethics and procedures. Completion of basic college-level journalism classes is strongly preferred.
• Attention to detail — absolutely no spelling errors, especially for player and journalist names.
• Ability to follow the site’s style and tone.
• Ability to analyze articles and craft intelligent, well-written posts summing up the news in a few paragraphs. We need someone who can balance creating quick copy with thoughtful analysis. You must be able to add value to breaking news with your own insight, numbers or links to other relevant articles.
• Ability to use Twitter and Tweetdeck.
• Multi-tasking is crucial.
• If you’re interested, email prohockeyrumorshelp@gmail.com and explain how you stand out and qualify in a couple of short paragraphs.  Please attach your resume to the email.  Unfortunately we may not be able to reply to every applicant.

This year’s MLB draft was limited to five rounds, down from the usual forty. Those not selected are capped at just $20K in bonus money upon signing, well shy of the (already restricted) amounts typically spent. And now, MLB is warning teams not to promise too much in educational benefits when wooing undrafted players.

Per J.J. Cooper of Baseball America, via Twitter, the league has sent out formal guidance to its teams regarding the negotiation of college scholarship plan and continuing education program funding. Those programs are regular parts of the draft signing process.

It’s not entirely clear what the league is trying to tamp down on here, but the memorandum is said to advise organizations not to offer “exorbitant” funding of players’ education. As Cooper explains, there’s no evident reason for concern that teams could back-door money to players’ personal accounts. Indeed, the programs already come with clear guidelines governing their administration to avoid any skirting of draft bonus rules.

Perhaps the memo was meant mostly as a reminder to teams not to get too creative in their recruitment efforts. But it seems hard to justify any additional squeeze on incoming professional players after so much has already been taken off the table — particularly if it means limiting what those players are able to negotiate in future educational benefits.

The independent league American Association has announced plans to launch a 2020 season. It’ll begin play on July 3rd and host contests in three cities.

While this plan won’t involve the kind of travel that Major League Baseball is contemplating, it’s notable that the indy ball outfit is preparing to tee up sixty contests per team. If local conditions allow, the league says it’ll expand to permit home games in all six of its usual home cities.

This is far from a typical American Association schedule. Beyond the obvious shortening and restrictions on travel, there won’t be as many participating clubs as usual. Last year a dozen organizations played in the league, twice as many as 2020. The players from teams sitting out will be made available to the other clubs through a draft process.

Most notable of all? There’ll be fans in attendance. As you might’ve guessed, television rights fees won’t support this particular ballplaying business — even in part. While you may have heard of the St. Paul Saints and even a few other American Association clubs, it’s the gate or nothing when it comes to staging a season.

Full details aren’t yet clear, but the league says it’ll employ measures to modify the in-game experience “to allow for safe social distancing while enjoying a live, professional baseball game.” The three hub cities — Fargo, North Dakota; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Sioux Falls, South Dakota — were selected in large part because live attendance was permissible under local regulations.