With Major League Baseball slated to return in July, every fan base should be excited for two reasons. One, there will be baseball. And two, every team has a legitimate shot of making the playoffs.
“It could be a lot of fun,” MLB.com Phillies writer Todd Zolecki said on The DA Show. “Basically, all 30 teams are tied for first place approaching the traditional July 31 trade deadline, so I think that has the potential to be fun. I think there’s going to be some surprises. There could be some teams that you think are going to stink that are going to get hot and make the playoffs. There might be some teams that [you think] are locks to make the playoffs but stumble a little bit. There might be an injury, or maybe a couple of players get COVID [and that] knocks them out of contention. It has the chance to create a lot of drama.”
Still, many analysts believe that MLB and the MLBPA significantly damaged the game with their months-long public spat this offseason. Zolecki agrees.
“I think that’s true,” he said. “People, once they get on the field and start getting after it, I think that they will move past it. But very clearly the CBA is expiring at the end of 2021. There’s a lot of bad blood, a lot of mistrust between owners and the players union, and I think that’s going to continue. The players kind of got it handed to them in the last CBA, and they really do not want to give up another inch to ownership, so they were trying to draw a land in the sand here. And for that reason, I do think [the season] will be a nice respite. Hopefully they get to play all 60 games. Hopefully they get to finish the World Series. But then after that, I think it’s going to kick up again.”