This is going to be to be one of my least favorite stories to ever report on; The cancellation of the 2020 minor league season. On 6/30/2020, the news broke: full cancellation for the MILB season at all levels. No partial seasons, no workouts, nothing. It's all gone.
Notice the wording in their statement: "MLB has informed MILB that it will not be providing its affiliated minor league teams with players for the 2020 season." This cancellation was caused by major league baseball. It's another black eye for Rob Manfred's legacy. In a 2020 climate where the independent Chicago Dogs are trying to play, I have a hard time believing that there can't be any minor league baseball whatsoever. Likely, this is MLB trying to force certain fringe MILB franchises into bankruptcy so they can get their desired cuts of 40+ teams. It's a shady business tactic that shows zero concern for the little guys while the billionaire owners pad their pockets.
As minor league teams do not sign or acquire players, they are completely reliant on major league baseball to draft and assign players. so when major league baseball pulls the plug, there's not really much of anything that MILB can do. The two leagues had a relationship, and now MLB is taking advantage of it. The safety and concern for the players could have fallen on the capable shoulders of MILB teams. And after the long haggling season start negotiations of the MLB season, minor league baseball is stuck with nothing at the last minute. Either this was an intentional play by MLB to hamstring the minors, or Manfred is just that incompetent. Either way, this is terrible.
It's really a shame, because minor league baseball had a growing interested. At the Cubs convention in january, I got to spend a lot of time with the affiliates, and it was honestly one of my favorite parts of the weekend. Everyone was super friendly, knowledgeable, and just a pleasure to talk to. It would really upset me to hear that the Iowa Cubs, Tennessee Smokies, Myrtle Beach Pelicans, Eugene Emeralds, or South Bend Cubs folded. Especially if it's because of sinister moves by Major League Baseball.
With MLB trying to keep games to a minimum, it's no surprise they wanted nothing to do with a minor league season. With 10 billion in revenue, Manfred is doing anything he can to slash anything remotely unprofitable, even if it comes at the expense of the long term health of the game. It's disheartening. I hope minor league baseball survives, in spite of this attack.
