Some New Year’s issues for baseball and the Atlanta Braves

The Atlanta Braves are in position to take advantage of their foes in 2021… if the sport can get its act together.

The Atlanta Braves have now won three straight division titles and have gotten that “not getting past the first playoff round” monkey off their backs.

But we want more — as always.  Being on the cusp of taking down the Dodgers has merely whet the appetites of all those in Braves Country.

But there are still several issues with the game that must be resolved — and soon — before we can think about going forward into 2021.  Among them:

• Can we get a definitive answer about the designated hitter, expanded playoffs, and any of the rule changes that were forced upon the sport in 2020?
• Can we get MLB and the Player’s Association together to do some actual negotiations about how the 2021 season will be conducted?
• Has anyone reached out to the political forces in this country (both state and national) to find out what kind of restrictions in fan involvement will still be in place in February so that this information can be part of those negotiations?

Yes, baseball lost a lot of revenue in 2020, and if that’s repeated to any significant degree in 2021, the very future of the sport will begin to be in doubt — particularly for the smaller market clubs, as their revenue-sharing checks didn’t happen last year.

The MLBPA has to realize that this is actually happening — that teams are truly losing money.  Under such circumstances, their attitude needs to change from demanding the entire pie to a mode of dividing up the available pie pieces in an equitable manner.

Likewise, the owners need to show their hands.  Maybe not completely, but certainly enough to demonstrate the financial impact of a lack of fans in seats.  Only then can some formulas for revenue reductions — and then contract pro-ration — be worked out between the two parties.

But this is what it will take for baseball to survive… a real recognition that the business has changed.  You may wish to play 162 games as players, but you cannot expect 100% of your salaries when no tickets are being sold.

Beyond that, the entire minor league system must be on the field in 2021.

These are the big questions… bigger than the DH or anything else involving on-field rules.

As it stands, we want to see our Atlanta Braves take advantage of the clubs needing to cut payroll, but at the same time, the Braves had to borrow a lot of money in 2020 to keep things going.

So at this point, we can only guess how much they still have to spend.  We can only guess about how much can be put into acquiring an outfield hitter… or a DH… or depth arms.

We just hope as fans that they can do what’s necessary to keep that contending window wide open.

But as we exit 2020, these questions aren’t going to go away, and yet there seems to be no rush whatsoever to get an answer.  That’s sad.

All of this serves to harm this beautiful game, and to hurt a team that should be able to compete for a World Series title… thanks to the simple uncertainty about what lies ahead.