We don’t mean to pick on the Cleveland Indians, but their words represent those of a league whose owners have spent years persuading fans to root for prudent financial management. This year brought a pandemic, and so of course the decline in revenue would mean layoffs, furloughs and payroll cuts.
“We are in a worse financial position today than we were eight months ago,” Indians president Chris Antonetti told reporters in October.
True, no doubt, for the Indians and each of the other 29 teams. But the team that might have been hurt the most by the pandemic is the one that just worked out deals to acquire starting pitchers Blake Snell and Yu Darvish on consecutive days.