COVID-19 has affected the world of Major League Baseball big time this year. The season almost didn’t happen, but the season did happen and they had a 60 game season that started at the end of July. The normal baseball schedule consists of 162 games that start at the end of March. The season had a 4-month delay with a shortened season. COVID is also affecting how teams are dealing with the offseason haul.

The offseason has been slow in terms of how fast the offseason usually moves in a regular time period. Teams have lost money from not having as much revenue due to having no fans in attendance. The only revenue teams made was through media and digital rights contracts. This has led to teams being reluctant to sign players as the loss in revenue will reduce team payrolls and overall spending. The Winter Meetings usually happens in early December, but due to the pandemic, the Winter Meetings were canceled this year

The Winter Meetings is a place where teams can meet with prospective players to work out contracts with the players and this is usually where a lot of signings occur. Due to this being canceled, teams were not able to meet with players as they have in the past. Almost a month later, the signings have been kicking into gear. Several trades and signing have occurred. Big names like Fransisco Lindor, Liam Hendricks, George Springer, Kirby Yates, and Corey Kluber have all changed teams in recent weeks. Before this, nothing was happing in the baseball offseason and it felt like it was going to take forever for teams to go out and acquire new players for their team. Now it finally feels as if the baseball offseason is in full flow.