An expanded postseason and a universal designated hitter for the 2021 season are both dead issues with no recent movement or planned further discussion, multiple people with knowledge of the communications between Major League Baseball and the Players Association said this week. While reversals never can be totally ruled out, both sides are proceeding as though there will not be any last-minute addition of the DH in the National League, or additional playoff teams from the current field of 10, for 2021.
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Last year, an expanded postseason was agreed to at the last minute in July, right as the truncated 2020 season was beginning. The universal DH had already been ratified as a health and safety measure, to help pitchers avoid injuries from hitting or base running. But the circ*mstances that led to both developments in 2020 are different now, and it makes a similar last-minute scramble to reprise either element highly unlikely.
The players are concerned an expanded postseason harms competition, disincentivizing teams from adding talent they would otherwise pursue for a chance to crack a smaller field. The league believes the effect would be the opposite, that the format would encourage teams to upgrade in an effort to claim additional spots. At this point in the year, the potential impact on the free-agent market is ostensibly less than it would have been had an expanded postseason been agreed to in, say, December, because most players have been signed.
The economic arguments go beyond the free-agent market, however. Major League Baseball would have received a $100 million credit from ESPN for the expanded postseason, a source said, because MLB didn’t play enough games in 2020 to fulfill the package of games ESPN paid for. Naturally, owners wanted that influx of money. But the players felt the incentives were not there. Last year, players, like owners, were losing a large chunk of money simply because fewer games were played. In addition, the players’ postseason earnings are predicated on fan attendance, which they knew last year would be minimal at best. But this year, players feel more comfortable that come playoff time, fans will be in the stands and they’ll receive a substantial haul from the gate; the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines allows for optimism.
MLB offered the players a guarantee of more than $80 million for the entire postseason if the players agreed to the expanded format, equivalent to the bonus pool that was distributed in 2019 (when the playoff field was a standard 10 teams). But the players did not feel the guarantee represented significant gain, if any. (The CBA promises a relatively small guarantee for players in the event that gate receipts are not up to certain thresholds: a minimum $4.6 million, for example, is to be distributed to the players on a World Series-winning team, and more than $3 million to each of the losing team in the World Series and the other two teams that lost in the Championship Series rounds, and lesser amounts for the other postseason teams.)
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As for the DH, MLB sees a question of fairness in instituting it the NL at this point, with spring training already underway. Some NL general managers might be thrilled by the addition, depending on their roster construction, others not as much. “I don’t buy that argument,” an NL GM said. “We had a DH last year so some NL teams were prepared for that again.”
“I know we would love the DH,” one NL talent evaluator said Wednesday. “Hard to imagine any team wanting the pitchers to hit these days.” Adding the universal DH was a late move last year, but was considered necessary as the league and the players did everything they could to get a season in.
The DH in both leagues has long been of interest to the union, because it means an additional talent set that teams would pay for and pursue. The players, too, would prefer a DH this year from a health and safety standpoint. Last year, the league felt more urgency on the health front: spring training was shortened, and no one knew whether even a 60-game season could be played and how debilitating COVID-19 would be to rosters. This year, making the jump from 60 games to a target of 162 could bring its own physical issues for pitchers because of an increased workload. But overall, teams and players alike are more confident about navigating this season because of the experience of playing last year, and owners are not compelled to agree to the universal DH as a one-off on a health basis alone.
In talks with the union in the offseason, MLB sought a package deal: expanded playoffs and the universal DH tied together. The union never wanted the issues linked, however. The league and owners were more than annoyed that the union did not make any official counter proposals to its offers (one of which included a delay to the start of the 2021 season, which the players did not want.) The union, however, had no legal obligation to make counteroffers because a CBA is in place.
Both the universal DH and an expanded postseason are expected to be topics during collective bargaining, which has no start date as of yet. Both sides have begun preparing for what will be at least a somewhat compressed bargaining schedule compared to normal years. The sessions may be conducted mostly over video chats, rather than the standard in-person sessions. The current CBA expires on Dec. 1, 2021.
(Photo: Butch Dill / USA Today)
Evan Drellich is a senior writer for The Athletic, covering baseball. He’s the author of the book Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball’s Brightest Minds Created Sports’ Biggest Mess. Follow Evan on Twitter @EvanDrellich
