After delaying a season opener to August, the Mexican League announced plans to cancel the entire 2020 campaign after determining player/coach safety could not be assured–and will map out its own future in the meantime.
The Mexican League operates in a unique position within Minor League Baseball, operating with a large amount of autonomy, with play considered to be at the AAA/AA level. With this autonomy, the Mexican League had moved ahead with plans to play a shortened 2020 season, beginning in August.
Until this past week, when the directors of the 16 teams voted to scrap the season, the first time in 95 years that a whole schedule had been canceled. Local and federal governments had argued to cancel the season, saying it presented a health hazard, and team directors agreed it didn’t have the tools to guarantee the safety of players, coaches, staff and umpires.
But the decision to cancel the season wasn’t the only one made by the directors. As MLB looks to assume more operating authority over Minor League Baseball come 2021, the Mexican League issued the following list of goals for this offseason (courtesy Google Translate, so forgive any translation errors):
1) The LMB and its 16 teams agree to provide financial support to the players, as well as to the Umpires corps.
2) We will take advantage of the moment of forced pause to implement a deep reengineering that will allow us to innovate and strengthen ourselves by 2021.
3) We will generate a new and updated Governance System (Statutes and Regulations) that the LMB has not implemented in the last 30 years.
4) We will invest in the technological and digital transformation of the LMB, thus facing the challenges that the future has for our sport.
5) We will invest in the television and media infrastructure, turning our weakness into a strength for the future.
Sounds like the Mexican League is preparing for a future that guarantees even more autonomy from the NA.