Will the coronavirus do MLB's bidding, and eliminate much of the minor leagues?

Last night, I was teleconferencing with a bunch of old farts - yeah, we look pathetic - and talk turned to the seriously endangered 2020 baseball season. The notion of teams playing in Arizona before empty bleachers - though maybe better than nothing - hardly resembles a real season. We kept reaching one conclusion: 

Until humanity has a drug or vaccine that clobbers this virus, there is no return to the old ways. Even then, baseball will never be the same.

Major U.S. sports could be effectively sidelined until mid-2021, or even longer. Impossible? Who six months ago could have imagined our current situation? 

If baseball is canceled this year - a real possibility - what might it look like on the other side of the pandemic? I invite your thoughts. Here are a few of mine:

The minor leagues could shrink. The upper-crust bastards at MLB were already seeking to kill many minor league franchises, though political headwinds were pushing back. After this, I wonder if communities will have the clout to keep their franchises alive. Syracuse, where I live, has battled to support the Chiefs for 30 years. Public money has always been involved. Will the team survive this? All bets are off. It's not hard to imagine dozens of small cities with empty stadiums, built by taxpayers - relics of the past - with nobody to play in them. 

A few MLB franchises might fold. Looking at Tampa, which has failed to gain a solid toehold in Florida, despite fielding excellent teams. Last fall's playoffs seemed to revive support for the Rays. That momentum could be lost. And other teams could be stretched. Here's an impossible thought: If NYC continues to be a boiling kettle of flu, could it support two teams? Once upon a time, when faced with red ink, MLB owners could hold threaten to move and hold taxpayers for ransom. After this, I don't think that's going to work.  

Many great careers would be cut short. For the Yankees, Brett Gardner comes to mind. A happy ending to Giancarlo Stanton's Yankee career might never get written. Instead of a Yankee decade, the Twenties could be an era of missed opportunities and bloated contracts. Will Gleyber Torres be denied what could be the greatest season of his life? Same with Gerrit Cole. But it runs across the spectrum: Will Albert Pujols ever hit another home run? What about Justin Verlander and Zack Grienke? There will be a BEFORE and AFTER, and owners will surely try to impose a salary cap - even more than the de facto cap (alias "luxury taxes") that already exists. Yankee fans might not like the new reality.

The game would have to find an entirely new pricing structure. For years now, the Yankees have priced poor families out of games, and hefty YES Network fees to cable outlets strained the wallets of Millennials. The new stadium created a rich-poor breaking point, and frankly, I think it only sustained itself through traditions, corporations and the money of wealthy boomers. Until a vaccine is available, old farts won't be attending games. At the old prices, I wonder who will? 

In our lifetimes, baseball will never be quite the same.

(If I haven't totally depressed you, note that I'm soon going to launch polls for the IT IS HIGH All-Time Yankee opponents team, so please add your candidates to the comments section here or in yesterday's post.)