The universal DH and expanded postseason are “dead Issues” for the 2021 MLB season, according to a report from The Athletic.
If you enjoyed the universal DH or expanded postseason in 2020, then there’s bad news. If you’re a baseball purist who didn’t like them, there’s good news: MLB isn’t planning to go forward with either in 2021.
The Athletic reported the news on Wednesday night, calling the two proposals “dead issues with no recent movement or planned further discussion.”
While things might always change on that front, it feels pretty definitive at this point that the conversation is over.
MLB and the players got into a game of chicken over the DH and playoffs
The lack of movement on both issues reflects the deadlock between the MLB and the MLB Players Union.
According to Andy Martino of SNY, the league wanted to trade the DH for the expanded playoffs.
Meanwhile, Austin Slater of the Giants told Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports that the players weren’t on board with that idea.
“The DH has been something that the league has wanted for years, and then as soon as the players decide, hey, you know, this is a good thing for baseball, the league is like no, no, no, we’ll only do it now if you let us do expanded playoffs,” Slater said. “That just didn’t feel like a fair trade when they’re offering expanded playoffs and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue just for a DH.”
It may have been fun to see the DH in the National League, but it’s going to be at least a few months before the prospect is brought up as a possibility once more. The same goes for the expanded playoffs, which will certainly feature in future CBA negotiations.