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Podcast: Time Is of the Essence for MLB

As the sports world comes to a standstill, Major League Baseball, like every other professional sports organization, has a never-ending list of challenges to tackle.

Senior Writer Tom Verducci joined SI's Coronavirus + Sports podcast to discuss the pandemic's ramifications on baseball. MLB officially delayed its season two weeks, hoping to still cram in a full 162-game schedule, but that possibility seems increasingly impossible.

What issues are facing the sport? The league and players association must come to an agreement on service time, a measurement that essentially dictates how much players are paid. Accruing more service time unlocks more rights (free agency being the most lucrative) and anything less than a full season disrupts the usual build of service time.