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The Marlins’ 2020 season has been ‘paused’

We’re getting closer to a shutdown, it would seem, as the Phillies are also going to have to sit for a few days

Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

Earlier today I posted this long article suggesting MLB consider shutting down the 2020 season.

They haven’t done that, not yet — but one team is not going to be playing for a while:

There’s no indication, yet, as to how long this “pause” will be — and they’re not the only ones:

With only 60 or so days remaining in this shortened season, the thought of trying to “make up postponed games later” doesn’t seem too viable. Also, having the Yankees play the Orioles two more times than the 10 already on their schedule doesn’t seem fair from a competitive standpoint. Further, what happens if teams wind up with an unequal number of games at the end of the 60-game season (if we even get that far)?

That worked really well in the American League in the strike-shortened season of 1972:

baseball-reference.com

The games cancelled by the strike were not made up — but some teams lost more games to the strike than others, and so the Red Sox lost the division title by half a game. You can hear the screaming from Yankees executives if this happens to them this year.

So for now, the Marlins and Orioles will be at least four games short of everyone else. Those teams weren’t expected to contend, even in the shortened season — but these teams are:

Oh. Right. The Blue Jays’ temporary location in Buffalo won’t be ready this week, so they have to be the “home” team in someone else’s park until they can finally play a “home” game in Buffalo, which now won’t happen until August 11.

If this thing is even still going by August 11. Right now, that doesn’t seem very likely.