Major League Baseball might have a pretty big problem on its hands in handling the remainder of the St. Louis Cardinals’ season.
The Cardinals have played just eight games so far in the 2020 season, while 18 have been canceled due to a COVID-19 outbreak within the organization. The team and the league remain committed to playing as many games as possible, and thanks to a spate of doubleheaders, the current schedule calls for them to ultimately play 58 of their 60 originally scheduled games.
Even so, that will leave the Cardinals two games short of everyone else’s target, which could lead to win percentage being used as a tiebreaker for possible playoff spots. That is not sitting well with everyone. According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, some National League players find it “completely unfair” that they will have to endure a 60-game season while the Cardinals play in fewer and are judged on win percentage.
It’s worth noting that the NBA used winning percentage to break ties in its regular season, but there was an acceptance that it was the only workable solution given the circumstances and how far along the season was.
The Cardinals certainly aren’t looking to take advantage of any technicalities, especially since the problems they had were quite serious. The reality is there’s little MLB can do to satisfy all parties here. It may not be feasible to have the Cardinals play 60 games, and everyone else will have to adjust accordingly and accept whatever the outcome is.
