Rozner: MLB's 2021 is getting off to a wretched start

Spring training is still a week away and already baseball is ill, making its dwindling fan base sick in the process.

It's hard to imagine the game being in worse hands than those of commissioner Rob Manfred and union boss Tony Clark.

They are playing games with the rules as each side tries to rule the game, but in the process of staking out ground for the upcoming misery of CBA negotiations, each time the union says it won't agree to something simple, Manfred takes off the table something that benefits everyone in the game.

So, there will be no expanded playoffs, something that is good for both sides.

Rosters will be expanded to 26, when it's obvious that the pandemic will take a toll on many clubs. They would be better served having a bigger daily roster, which is good for both sides.

The universal DH is good for both sides, meaning higher-paying jobs for baseball players who aren't really baseball players, and keeping pitchers out of the box and off the bases.

A shorter schedule is good for both sides, but the union balked, even though the owners pledged to pay the players for 162 games. This is insanity on the part of the union.

A later start to spring training is better for both sides, but the players insisted they go to camp on the usual date, also absurd given the absurd circumstances.

Don't get me wrong, because I hate some of these rule changes Manfred is trying to force upon the sport, like watered-down playoffs, the ridiculous extra-inning rule of starting runners on second base and the National League DH - which is undoubtedly coming in the next CBA.

Show me a self-loathing baseball fan who's in a hurry for the game to end faster in extras and I'll show you, well, a self-loathing baseball fan who wants less for their money.

But it's a pandemic and if it's somehow going to keep players healthy - debatable in many cases - then I'm all for it.

Really, it's about the health of the game moving forward and both sides are doing all they can to turn off a sporting population that has already had it up to here with being locked in their homes.

No one wants to hear the arguments of millionaires and billionaires.

As for starting spring training on time and playing a full schedule, the union is playing with fire, given that there was no minor-league season in 2020 and that pitchers have gone from 162 games to 60 games and now back to 162 games.

This is a potential disaster.

The Cubs have given up on this season so it doesn't matter to them, but the White Sox are trying to win the World Series, and what they don't need is a pitching staff taxed to the max because of a full schedule.

Lucas Giolito, for example, just went from 173 innings and 176 innings to 72 innings. What would you be comfortable having him throw in 2021?

In a perfect world, given how pitchers are babied in this era, you would like to have Giolito ease back into it in 2021, but if the Sox are to fend off the Twins, their best pitcher will need to be back in the 175- to 200-inning range again this year because of the six-month schedule.

A 120-game slate would have made a lot more sense given what pitchers are facing.

There is no rhyme or reason for why pitchers get injured, but one common thread in this era is that massive changes in workload for pitchers with a history of Tommy John or shoulder surgeries is not a happy formula.

The good news is Manfred just basically admitted that MLB intentionally juiced the ball and is now dialing it back, so that should save some pitchers some long innings and allow them to get a bit deeper into games.

Nevertheless, fewer games would have benefitted every player and every organization, but the union nixed the idea and now teams are going to be forced to elevate players who don't belong when pandemic protocols knock out players and postpone games.

Hard to see how that's good for anyone.

What owners and players are already doing to each other is not going to be good for the game in 2021 and 2022.

Might as well get used to it. The rhetoric - and the inevitable blame game - is coming your way.

Baseball fever ... catch it.