Bryce Harper Pitches His Concept for Baseball's Return in 2020

Opening Day of the major league baseball season was scheduled back on March 26 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s been a lot of back and forth between the players, the owners and talking heads on television and sports talk radio about when things might return. There’s been a lot of speculation of how things will play out and too many proposal concepts to try and remember. This week, the owners submitted a proposal to the players that would bring baseball back in early July for an 82-game season. There’s yet to be a ton of momentum in a positive direction on that front.

Among proposals that have been thrown out include a new one from Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper, who unveiled his concept on Instagram Friday night. We’ll take a look at the details he proposes and give our thoughts on the matter.

135 Games: Harper has proposed a 135-game season with teams playing from July through mid-November in the regular season. Teams would have an off-day on the schedule every other Monday and would play seven-inning doubleheaders on Sundays. One would have to think that both sides would be happy with this. Getting 83 percent of the schedule in would lead to a bigger chunk of TV revenue being paid out as opposed to right around 50 percent of the schedule, which helps owners. More games also means a higher percentage of salaries paid out for players. The potential of fans returning, even at 25 percent capacity, would help bring in additional revenue as owners try to offset their losses.

Splitting the League Geographically Instead of by AL/NL: Under Harper’s proposal, instead of AL/NL, it would be Eastern and Western-type splits, similar to what the NHL and NBA go with. This would help limit some travel issues but it would be easier for teams that would be considered in the East. Meanwhile, the West would have teams from Seattle as far east as Milwaukee, St. Louis or Chicago. That’s a pretty big gap to have to travel, not to mention time zone travels that have to be factored in with the lack of off-days. Travel is going to be the biggest concern when it comes down to the concept Harper has pitched. Finding a way to make that work is going to be critical regardless of what option works out.

30-Man Roster/Six-Man Rotation: Harper pitches expanded 30-man rosters and a six-man rotation under his plan in an order to save wear and tear on pitchers’ arms. The 30-man roster is something that likely is going to come to fruition as it stands so no one is going to be bent out of shape about that concept. Harper admits that a six-man rotation would be more at the discretion of the pitchers so some teams could theoretically utilize it while others wouldn’t. I’m not sure how much that would affect a team like Tampa Bay, who tends to use openers and then bulk guys to eat innings. One other thing that is going to be concerning is the new rule where pitchers have to face at least three hitters unless they get the final out of an inning. With a compressed schedule with limited off-days, it will take effective bullpen management to avoid burning guys out.

DH Up for Debate: Harper has no real opinion on the DH. Normally, we see it in AL parks and not in NL parks, which means pitchers have to hit in interleague games at NL parks. Owners have proposed a universal DH in their concept for this season. From a personal perspective, I like the strategy involved of having to account for your pitcher hitting. It may lead to tough decisions with how to handle your staff because you had to pinch-hit for a guy earlier than you wanted but isn’t that what makes baseball great?

10-Team Playoff Field: The proposal from the owners has an expanded field of 14 teams instead of 10, with no details about how things would play out. Harper is pitching a proposal that is more like the College World Series. Under his concept, teams play in a best-of-three series with the winner moving on and the loser dropping to the losers’ bracket. Teams that were beaten in the series square off in a winner-take-all tilt where the winner would advance while the loser sees their season come to an end. Once the field is down to two teams, they would square off in a traditional best-of-seven World Series. It’s an interesting concept to say the least but not one that would generate a ton of traction more than likely.

No TV Blackouts: This one would be interesting to see. Harper would want blackouts null and void at this point, in order to draw as many eyeballs as possible to the return of the sport. That’s something that has always been a bone of contention as owners want fans to buy tickets instead of sitting at home watching the game on TV and drinking their own beer. Blackout rules are the bane of sports fans’ existence for years and, with fans not being allowed in attendance, at least to start, this could bring about some good will. That’s something that can’t have a price tag put on it at this stage of things.

Pushing Back the 2021 and 2022 Seasons: Since under Harper’s plan, this season would run through the end of November more than likely, if not the first couple days of December depending on rainouts or other issues, it makes sense that the 2021 campaign would be pushed back. Harper proposes a May 1 start date for 2021 and an April 1 start for the 2022 season, allowing things to return to normal in time for 2023. It’s not a terrible concept as it still allows for a fairly normal offseason before getting 2021 going. Then, by the time 2022 starts, it’s not that far off from what a normal schedule would be.

Harper’s concepts have merit in some facets but he completely avoided dealing with others. There was no discussion about revenue sharing, about COVID-19 testing or other current bones of contention among players and owners. Still, it’s nice to see someone thinking outside the box and come up with a potential concept. The clock is ticking on getting something together to salvage the season. Let’s hope that it gets done.