With the delayed start of the 2022 baseball season scheduled for Thursday, it’s a perfect time for so-called experts to pen their predictions. Baseball writers are like weather forecasters, who can only guarantee accuracy by calling for 50 per cent chance of precipitation but never stop trying. So here’s one man’s best guess:
Reacting to the 99-day lockout, fans will boycott baseball, causing most major-league teams to suffer losses in attendance that impact vital game-day revenue.
The Covid-era “designated runner” rule – mandating a free man on second to start every extra inning – will continue to stir resentment from fans of traditional baseball.
On the plus side, Jackie Robinson Day April 15 will produce league-wide celebrations on the 75th anniversary of his traumatic integration of Major League Baseball.
A month after erecting a statue to iconic pitcher Sandy Koufax, the Los Angeles Dodgers will host an All-Star Game dominated by current National League pitchers on July 19. The winning pitcher will be former Dodger Kenley Jansen, now with the Atlanta Braves, though current Dodger closer Craig Kimbrel, a former Brave, will wind up leading the league in saves.
Even though he’s not alive to see it, Gil Hodges will inspire legions of Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Mets to witness his Hall of Fame Induction July 24 after going 0-for-34 in previous tries.
The Hodges induction will be a far better draw, both live and on television, than the competitive “Gil Hodges Bobblehead Day” at CitiField.
Jim Kaat, a pitcher-turned-broadcaster, will deliver the best and funniest speech in Cooperstown, where he and long-time Minnesota teammate Tony Oliva will join David (Big Papi) Ortiz as the lone living inductees.
Throngs of Latinos will stage a flag-waving, bell-ringing outdoor party to salute 2022 inductee Minnie Minoso, the late Cuban star often described as the Latino Jackie Robinson, as well as Big Papi, the best designated hitter in baseball history.
Determined that his dollars will make a difference, billionaire Mets owner Steve Cohen will be the biggest wheeler-dealer at the trade deadline, adding a starter and reliever on expiring contracts and spending the rest of the season trying to sign them.
The Chicago Cubs will beat the Cincinnati Reds in the second annual Field of Dreams game, which will prove to be a bigger slugfest than last year’s inaugural, a 9-8 duel won by the Chicago White Sox over the New York Yankees.
Also in August, the Boston Red Sox will batter the Baltimore Orioles in the annual Little League Classic, another one-game series, in a Williamsport, PA ballpark that holds just 2,500 fans.
Matt Olson, the man Atlanta obtained from Oakland to succeed Face of the Franchise Freddie Freeman at first base, will like hitter-friendly Truist Park so much that he’ll lead the National League in home runs — and threaten Andruw Jones’ single-season club record of 51.
Albert Pujols, back with the St. Louis Cardinals as a 42-year-old designated hitter, will hit the 21 home runs he needs to join the 700 Home Run Club.
Nelson Cruz, also 42, won’t hit as many but will bring the Washington Nationals two much-needed pitching prospects at the trade deadline. After the Cardinals reach the playoffs but fail to last long in October, Pujols, Yadier Molina, and Adam Wainwright will retire together and begin their five-year wait before they find their names on the Cooperstown ballot.
The team with the heftiest payroll, the Los Angeles Dodgers, will beat the No. 2 team on the Spotran list, the New York Mets, in the National League Division Series but will lose the Championship Series to the Braves for the second year in a row.
Spurred by the return of sluggers Ronald Acuña, Jr. and Marcell Ozuna, Atlanta will become the first team since the 2000 Yankees to win consecutive world championships.
The Seattle Mariners will remain the only existing team never to reach the World Series but will make the American League West race excruciatingly close.
Houston’s Dusty Baker, oldest manager in the majors, will extend his record for the most games managed without ever winning a World Series.
After barring unvaccinated players from visiting teams, the Toronto Blue Jays will romp to the World Series on the 20th anniversary of their previous appearance against the Atlanta Braves but will face a different outcome.
Star shortstop Carlos Correa, making good on the first year of his three-year, $103 million Minnesota contract, will lead the Twins to the top of the AL Central but then exercise the opt-out clause in his pact and become a free agent again.
New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom will also exercise his opt-out clause but find teams reluctant to meet his price because of concerns about his elbow, which shortened his last season, and his shoulder, which shortened this one.
The Kansas City Royals will join the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays in lobbying for new downtown ballparks.
This year’s winter meetings, set for San Diego in early December, will compensate for the cancellation of the last two with an endless flurry of free agent signings, transactions, and rumors — plus the long-overdue election of Fred McGriff to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Today’s Game Eras Committee.
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, never able to garner the required 75 per cent during their maximum 10 years on the writers’ ballot, won’t pass muster with the veterans committee either. Some things never change.
