Former Dodger Alex Wood calls out MLB insider over 2021 season report

We got the first round of the Alex Wood-Ken Rosenthal fight Dodgers fans never knew they needed on Wednesday.

The 2021 MLB season is — seriously — just around the corner, despite the league’s best efforts to delay Spring Training report dates for reasons they want you to believe are entirely altruistic.

Most players, fully on track for a mid-February report date since the second the Dodgers wrapped up the 2020 World Series, don’t appear to be buying it. Alex Wood included.

Wood, eager to begin his new tenure with the Giants on a one-year deal, provided the players’ side to the story on Wednesday in response to a Ken Rosenthal article that was certainly Commissioner-flavored.

Rosenthal — at least, in his Athletic headline — appeared to paint the MLBPA as obstinate for opting not to talk about health protocols with the U.S. government. Buried in the text, Wood showed, was a seamless explanation for their absence on the call; they had set their own discussion for a later date.

Need help carrying that water?

Both parties, from the league and players’ side, prefer the safest possible season. But a last-minute proposal (truly, the last minute) to halt all preparation, move it back a month, and bake in more injury-creating double headers could be a nightmare for the league’s stars, not to mention an extreme inconvenience. After all, why now, after an entire offseason’s worth of planning for a February report date? Why are these conversations always handled so strangely?

Dangling expanded playoffs and the universal DH clearly isn’t enough justification here, and plenty of players in Wood’s comments agreed.

Alex Wood, formerly of the Dodgers, gave us another reason why the MLB CBA talks are doomed.

This is poised to be an uncomfortable year for both sides, despite the fact that it seems likely a full season will be played and stadiums will open April at least filled to partial capacity (Spring Training sites that have announced plans so far seem capped at 20-25%, while the Super Bowl down the street in Tampa is welcoming 22,000 fans).

At the end of the season, both sides will get together at the bargaining table to craft a new CBA. The players will attempt to remove the veritable salary cap that is the luxury tax threshold, and the owners will offer several unpalatable things in exchange for more wage suppression.

It will be exceedingly ugly, and the league’s stars are already mounting their “Us vs. Them” credo in anticipation.

For the time being, please let the games begin so we can get some form of an escape from the bullying.

As Wood made perfectly clear, though, this simmering resentment will not disappear — and rightfully so — when players report, a date that’s still just around the corner, despite the league’s efforts.

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