Ever since people began speculating about what the 2020 season might look like, people have been asking what, in these fairly insane and uncertain times, might cause the season to be cancelled.
Over the weekend Andy Martino of SNY obtained the portion of Major League Baseball’s health and safety protocols which speak to that. And it turns out that there are three things which could trigger a season cancellation. The three triggers:
(1) if restrictions on travel throughout the United States are imposed;
(2) if there is a material change in circumstances such that the Commissioner determines, after consultation with recognized medical experts and the Players Association, that it poses an unreasonable health and safety risk to players or staff to stage those games, even without fans in attendance; or
(3) if the number of players who are unavailable to perform services due to COVID-19 is so great that the competitive integrity of the season is undermined.
The first factor is obviously objective. The second two are obviously subjective, left up to Rob Manfred’s judgment. I’m not sure what, exactly, would trigger such judgments. There is no set number of positive tests or players absent which would tip the balance, for example. But given that the recent surge in positive tests, both nationally and on MLB rosters, haven’t spurred such discussion, I have to imagine it’d be a pretty dire set of circumstances.
