On Thursday, the MLB and the players association made a deal on how to handle the 2020 season. One of the things agreed on included shortening the draft from 40 rounds to five rounds in 2020, with non-drafted players receiving a signing bonus of no more than $20k.
Also, players will recieve service time regardless of how the season turns out. If there is a 2020 season, players will recieve service time as usual. If the season ends up having to be canceled, players will get the same amount of service time as they did last year.
Now, how does this affect the Yankees?
Well, if there’s no 2020 season, some of their stars could’ve already played their last game in pinstripes. Masahiro Tanaka, DJ LeMahieu, James Paxton, and possibly Brett Gardner could be free agents. Their contracts expire this year, but Gardner has a team option.
So, assuming the season gets played, this shouldn’t affect the Yankees any more than a regular 162 game season would affect them. It’s unfortunate for fans that the season gets counted as service time regardless, but it’s great for the players. It’s the right thing to do.
Nothing official has been released about the schedule yet, but Bob Nightengale reported that teams are expected to expand their rosters up to 29 men during the first month of the season.
This could possibly hint that a lot of the scheduled doubleheaders could take place early on in the season. Expanding the roster for this would allow teams to add a guy to the rotation and increase bullpen arms. They would also do this to play the doubleheaders when players are still fresh.
Stay tuned for more updates.