WILL OWNERS OPEN THEIR WALLETS IN 2021?

And I am not talking about the weather, necessarily. Some of you have winter months coming and the snow will return. Well, it will return for most of you. For me, it is still hovering around 100 degrees in the middle of freaking October.

But geography aside, baseball doesn't count because winter is still coming. The World Series is coming, which means free agency is around the corner and early predictions are calling for.....a long and COLD winter that will hit the sport we love hard, maybe harder than ever before.

We are all sick of the pandemic. I never want to hear the words "Coronavirus" or "Covid 19" ever again....but it's still sticking around. Even if it isn't making you or I, or the players sick (knock on wood), it is sticking around and its side affects will still be around when the calendar flips to 2021.

The New York Daily News breaks it down the best. We already saw how much slower the last two winters were, but now as owners deal with their financial losses it means that players will also pay a hefty price. I'm sure Gerrit Cole is happy that he isn't a free agent this season because that $324 million deal may not happen a year later. Instead, now we wait and see what is in store for DJ LeMahieu.

If the Yankees move on from all free agents: Masahiro Tanaka, J.A. Happ and James Paxton, that’s about $52 million coming off the books. That's a lot of money but the Yankees are already predicting an estimated $200 million loss (or more) thanks to the pandemic shortened season with no fans. LeMahieu has certainly earned his big pay day, but as the Yankees try and cut payroll can they offer him enough money to get him back? And if the Yankees do get LeMahieu back, will that be the only significant move that the Yankees move?

I hope not, but owners are already setting the tone for the winter. We have to prepare for anything. This could be the strangest winter we have ever seen. There could be many free agents looking for a home and for those players entering arbitration - what does that look like after a short 60 game season? 

I don't know what to expect this winter. We will have to wait and see how the Yankees and baseball in general respond to the market. Let's just hope we can get fans in the stands again for 2021. We all miss it and we need it.

 I know things will be different moving forward, I just hope winter won't be as bad as predicted.

  --Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

 BYB Managing Editor

 Twitter: @nyprincessj