There’s a lot of unknown surrounding the Major League Baseball season that goes far beyond if and when the 2020 year will begin.
A slew of big names are set to become free agents at the end of the campaign, including Mookie Betts, J.T. Realmuto, George Springer and Trevor Bauer. But questions came about regarding if this year would count as service time or if they’d need to play a full year with their respective teams in 2021 should the season be cancelled.
According to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, 2020 will count as service time even if the season never gets played.
“MLB has agreed to grant a full year of service to players who remain active for the entire 2020 season regardless of how many games the schedule includes, according to sources familiar with the discussions,” Rosenthal wrote Wednesday.
As you know, Betts was traded from the Boston Red Sox to the Los Angeles Dodgers in February. So there is a chance the All-Star outfielder could become a free agent without ever playing a game for the Dodgers.
But if you ask Scott Boras, baseball in December also is a possibility.
There’s no beginning in sight at the moment for the MLB season. But this certainly gives some soon-to-be free agents some peace of mind knowing what they’ll be able to do come the fall.
