Since the coronavirus pandemic shut down baseball in March, an avalanche of daily concerns has cascaded onto club officials and managers. The health of the players and staff. Proper food and shelter for foreign-born players. The daily review of home workouts. Budget problems, and the consideration of who gets furloughed, who gets fired.
Only now, after the players’ association and Major League Baseball began discussions about the possible reopening of baseball earlier this week, are teams beginning to dig into possible strategic considerations in an 82-game season that starts in July. “These are all good questions to think about,” one executive said this week as he discussed some of the decisions teams will have to weigh as they prepare for a truncated season that might or might not get off the ground. “But I’d bet that there are general managers who haven’t even thought about this stuff.”
Here are four ways teams might attack the shortened season: