COVID-19 wreaked havoc on baseball this season, with the season cut by more than half and fans barred from the stadium for just about every game. A report from the Wall Street Journal showed MLB losing $3 billion this year. With the pandemic still raging worldwide—cases are surging across the US and Europe as we enter the offseason—there’s still a good chance revenues will be at least partially disrupted in 2021.
Needless to say, this isn’t good news for the players. Baseball, specifically the owners, has become more and more stingy in recent years, with player compensation failing to rise at a rate commensurate to revenues.