Negotiations between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have been, in a word, complicated. But Hall of Fame pitcher and MLB Network analyst John Smoltz still has faith.
“I still maintain there’s going to be a baseball season,” Smoltz said on Tiki & Tierney. “It’s just going to be a matter of when does it start. The ideal situation would have been July 4, but we’re not in an ideal situation; we’re now in an ideal world right now. They’ve got to have contingencies for everything. They’re going to have to have contingencies moving forward when inevitably there’s going to be a small spike or guys are going to test positive because there’s more testing.”
College football knows that firsthand.
“You have to understand that’s going to be part of the way it goes, where certain people might have to go on the disabled list,” Smoltz said. “You’re going to have to find a way to move forward and not go forward and have a stop. That would be the worst thing is going forward, having the season and then [having] to stop the season because the outbreak happens.”
Well, to be fair, the worst thing would be no season at all.
“Not getting it going is by far the PR nightmare that nobody wants to deal with,” Smoltz said. “In the middle of this pandemic and the country dealing with what it’s dealing with, nobody wants to hear about what’s looming. They just want to know how do you get it done right now. From a players’ standpoint, it wouldn’t be great to miss a whole year. It’s just not. It’s not part of our DNA when you’re playing to think that you can just miss a year and just jump back on the horse and be ready to go again. Baseball, for everybody, would be so much better when they’re playing – and for the players, they’ll be better for it, even if it’s only a 60-game schedule.”