Mariano Rivera does not think short MLB season can crown champion

Major League Baseball does not know how much of its season will be played due to the coronavirus pandemic, but one Hall of Famer is worried about it being shortened too much.

Former New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera does not think the champion of an abbreviated season should be viewed the same way as other World Series winners due to the many variations that can take place over the course of a long campaign.

“I don’t think you can play a 60-game season and you call yourself a champion,” Rivera said Friday on ESPN New York’s “The Michael Kay Show,” via Greg Joyce of the New York Post. “Anything can happen in 60 games. I don’t think it’s enough. People don’t play on all cylinders, the whole teams are different. I don’t know. It’s a great question, because I don’t know what’s going to happen if the season is starting in June or July.”

MLB may have little choice. There is talk that the season won’t start before June, and even that may prove optimistic. While the league wants to play a full 162 game season, that may not be feasible, even with some of the ideas put forward. Rivera has a point, but the league has operated with shortened seasons before due to labor strife, and they may have to again here.