As we start to get excited about another season of Atlanta Braves baseball, there is a battle brewing between the players and MLB.
In almost all of the articles I’ve written this offseason I’ve used the word ‘hopefully’ when talking about getting a full season of Atlanta Braves baseball in 2021.
And that’s mostly because of the unknown surrounding the COVID-19 virus, but also because I knew there was another battle coming between the MLB and MLBPA.
Well, that battle has finally become public as MLB said in an article by Bob Nightengale that they don’t see any way a full season can be completed in 2021.
Their main reasoning for this is that they want all players and staff to have the COVID-19 vaccine before arriving for spring training and they believe it won’t be until March before those vaccines are ready for mass production.
They’re arguing that it would make more sense to delay the season until at least May.
But the MLBPA quickly responded to that in an article on The Athletic (subscription required) by Evan Drellich stating that we already proved we can play during a pandemic and follow strict protocols.
And it was even proven in the playoffs that it can be done with limited fans in the stands.
This feels like a shady move by the owners to save money in 2021. They don’t want games to begin unless there are no restrictions on fans in the stands so they can get their normal revenue.
We know teams lost a lot during the 2020 season, but so did the players. They took a huge pay cut and put their health and safety on the line (as well as the health and safety of their families) to play in 2020.
They don’t want to play another season under prorated salaries when they’ve already proven it can be done.
I fall on the side of the players in this one. It’s been proven that we can still play games during the pandemic and that we can even have some fans in the stands.
All the other sports are already doing it with the NBA set to begin their season in the coming weeks. There’s no excuse for MLB not to work something out to make sure players are safe and are able to play a full season.