Opening Day for the 60-game 2020 MLB season is approaching fast, and it sure feels good to have some actual baseball action to talk about. Each day over the next two weeks, our panel of MLB experts will weigh in on the biggest storylines of the season ahead.
The topics our panel has hit so far (click the links or scroll down to see the answers):
Biggest name starting his last season with his current team?
Who is more likely to win it all: Dodgers/Yankees or the field?
Who is the biggest name playing his last season with his current team?
Sam Miller: Albert Pujols? He's got another year on his contract after this one, and I have no insight that tells me he doesn't want to play it out. But the world is awfully unforeseeable right now. I could imagine any number of scenarios in which he's not back for 2021, ranging from the almost apocalyptic (no baseball) to the much more traditional (the Angels decide they're too competitive in 2021 to roster a sub-replacement 41-year-old with no positional utility). Meanwhile, from his end, this shortened season greatly reduces his chances of eventually getting to 700 career home runs or the all-time RBI record, giving him less incentive to hang around if playing baseball in a pandemic turns out to be miserable. I'm not confidently predicting it, but these 60 games could be the unacknowledged retirement tour of one of the 21st century's three greatest players.
