This has been a dreadful offseason for Major League Baseball. While the Atlanta Braves have at least made some moves, most are sitting idle because there’s no clear direction.
For a moment this offseason things looked like they were back to normal with the Atlanta Braves making a couple of splash free-agent signings.
But outside of those moves, the free-agent market has been dreadfully quiet — especially for hitters.
Some of that has to do with the financial losses of teams from a shortened 2020 season with no fans for added revenue. As a result, there are teams who are looking to shed payroll — even the Cubs — and won’t be competitive in 2021.
But I think the bigger culprit behind this dreadful offseason is Rob Manfred and Major League Baseball.
We’re a week into January and we still don’t know what kind of season we’re going to have in 2021.
Will there be a DH in both leagues? Are playoffs going to be expanded again? How many games will we play? Can fans be in attendance?
I mean, spring training is set to begin in a little over a month and we still don’t have answers to these questions that we’ve been asking for over two months now!
How can you expect teams to operate when they don’t know the rules and parameters for the game they’re playing?
Sure, they’ve been told to operate as if there won’t be a DH in both leagues this year, but that was a definite yes or no. Teams are still wary that at any moment the league might suddenly change their minds.
The fact is, this is just a business strategy from MLB and the owners to try and gain leverage over the players.
Owners don’t want games played unless fans can be in attendance. Players are arguing that they just played a season without fans and can do it again.
MLB is using the DH as leverage as they know the players want it because it opens up more options for players like Marcell Ozuna.
It’s just really sad to see the state of baseball right now and what Manfred has let it become. I’m really disgusted with where things are and how painful this offseason been.
The next offseason will be even more painful with the CBA negotiations. It’s really hard for me to have much sympathy for either side as they fight over how to split up the millions of dollars they get from us fans. Just shut up and play.