Baseball’s Proposal and It’s Impact on the Phillies
On Monday, May 11th, the 30 Major League Baseball owners approved a plan to begin the 2020 MLB season that was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
From the owners, it goes to the Player’s Association, where both sides will negotiate the intricacies of the proposal over the next two weeks, and try to strike out a deal.
The highlights of the deal include…
- An 82-game season
- Expanding the playoffs from 10 to 14 teams
- A universal designated hitter
- Regional schedules where teams play their division and the opposite division (i.e., the NL East only plays the NL East and AL East)
- A 30-man roster with a potential taxi squad of up to 50 players
- Spring Training 2.0 in June with the season starting in early July
- A 50-50 revenue split between players and owners
It’s that last point that is going to be the big hurdle. I’m not going to dive into that here. If you want to learn more about that issue, I recommend you check out Jeff Passan’s article on espn.com, which is highly informational and lays out both perspectives.
Instead, let’s pretend the deal gets approved as is, and go over how it could potentially impact the Phillies.
82 Games
First, the 82-game schedule. That’s just over half the number of games that a normal season has. That makes every game much more important, as teams won’t have the luxury of starting off slow and catching their stride a few months in. A slow start could sink a team. And the Phillies are notorious for slow starts and epic collapses lately.
Playoffs
What makes up for that is an expansion of the playoffs. With two more spots available in each league – presumably, two Wild Card spots – more teams will be fighting to make the playoffs as late as the final week of the season. That also lends credence to the fact that every game is now twice as important as they were before.
The National League East is expected to be one of the toughest divisions in baseball this year, so more opportunities to make the playoffs is only a good thing for the Phillies.
NL East
Speaking of the NL East, the regional schedule idea could be problematic for the Phils. From a health perspective, it’s the idea that makes the most sense. It will minimize the travel, and allow teams to take buses as opposed to planes for most of their games (those trips to Florida could be tough, though).
More games against the Braves, Mets, and Nationals – three of the top teams in the National League, though considering the Mets top always confuses me – and none against the weaker teams like the Pirates, Giants, and Rockies, is a huge concern. Then throw in the fact that the Phillies would have to play AL East teams in the Yankees, Red Sox, and Rays – three of the best teams in all of baseball over the past several years – and now the Phillies’ schedule became much tougher than say, the Cardinals’ schedule.
Schedule
Remember that part about the games being twice as important because there are less this season? This potential gauntlet of a schedule could make every game three times as important to the Phillies. While they’re playing games against some of the best teams in baseball, and trying to fight for an extra playoff spot, the teams they’re competing against for the Wild Card can feast on the weak American League Central teams.
Wouldn’t you rather play the Royals, Tigers, and White Sox instead of who the Phillies have to play?
30-Man Roster
The roster changes are particularly interesting for the Phillies. First, the universal DH. The Phillies are not particularly deep and don’t have a masher to fill that role. But it could be a way to get Jay Bruce’s bat into the lineup on a nightly basis. Or a way to keep J.T. Realmuto’s bat in the lineup, while giving him a spell behind the plate at the same time.
A 30-man roster – which would give teams more pitchers to use to reduce the risk of injury, especially early on when pitchers have to load up their arms again – means Spencer Howard finds his way onto the big league club. When you consider there will probably be no minor leagues this season, it’s a no-brainer to have Howard up. As the season goes on, he could easily win the fifth spot in the rotation from Vince Velasquez or Nick Pivetta.
Minor Leaguers
No minors would also mean the Phillies top prospect would be with the big league club, if not on the 30-man roster, on the taxi squad of 50. Alec Bohm could make things very interesting for the Phillies early on. The taxi squad gives the Phillies’ flexibility with constructing their roster on a day to day basis while giving them plenty of insight into some of their lower-tier prospects.
If baseball comes back this year – and hopefully it does – it’s certainly going to be a unique season.
While it could be quite the challenging season for the Phillies, if they play their cards right, it could also be a quite rewarding one.
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