by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor
After Tuesday’s report by Bob Nightengale in USA Today that MLB officials are now feeling optimistic about the prospect of beginning the season before the end of June in major league stadiums, another report surfaced on Wednesday with a far less rosy outlook for minor league baseball. Joe Doyle reported on Lookout Landing that he’d heard from multiple player agents that they’d been “informally advised” that there would not be a regular minor league season in 2020.
Minor League Baseball quickly issued a statement denying that any decision has been made to cancel to minor league season for 2020. And Baseball America executive editor JJ Cooper reported that his sources confirmed to him that no such decision has been made.
While it’s likely that no official decision has been made to cancel the minor league season at this point, many have assumed that proceeding with minor league baseball this season would be unlikely. On Wednesday, while noting that there was “growing optimism” about the return of major league baseball, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweeted that there was “no likelihood” of a minor league season in 2020.
Also on Wednesday, the Portland Sea Dogs, the Red Sox affiliate in the Double-A Eastern League, offered refunds to fans for any tickets purchased for the 2020 season, citing “the increasing likelihood we will not be able to host fans this season.” And a couple of weeks ago, Baseball America published an article detailing the “massive amount of hurdles that have to be overcome to make any MiLB season possible,” and claimed that “it’s becoming all too easy to imagine the complete 2020 season being cancelled.”
Indeed, there would be plenty of issues involved in trying to get minor league games up and running across the country. While major league baseball can contemplate playing without fans in the stands due to massive amounts of TV revenue, minor league baseball can’t exist without fans in the stands. And even if minor league teams were able to bring fans back to the ballparks, the logistics of social distancing might make things unfeasible. And who’s to say that enough fans would be eager to come back out to ballparks to even make opening up the gates worthwhile for minor league teams?
While losing the 2020 minor league season would undoubtedly be a sad development on many counts, it doesn’t necessarily mean that prospects wouldn’t have the opportunity to take the field in some context in 2020. Doyle’s report for Lookout Landing on Wednesday mentioned the possibility of a “developmental league” playing games in spring training facilities. If that were to be the case, then prospects could possibly take the field in Arizona, perhaps in Florida as well, in something similar to either Arizona League or the Arizona Fall League contests.
One thing is certain – nothing is completely clear, at least not yet. Undoubtedly, many different options and possibilities have been discussed and are currently being considered. And it’s certainly easy to imagine there being an insurmountable number of hurdles to implementing the minor league season this year. But it’s highly unlikely that there will be any sort of official announcement regarding the 2020 minor league season until plans for the 2020 major league season have been signed, sealed and delivered first.
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