Didi Gregorius Got Screwed by MLB and MLBPA's Reported Service-Time Agreement

There's plenty of uncertainty surrounding the status of the 2020 Major League Baseball season, as league operations are currently on hold indefinitely. While commissioner Rob Manfred is aiming for a June return, it's unknown if normalcy in the nation will return by then.

With the season bound to be shortened, at least, both the league and players union are nearing an agreement on service time. If a player is active for the entirety of the 2020 season, no matter how long, the league will grant them a full-year of service time towards their pursuit of free agency.

While that's all well and good, nobody was hurt more by this than players like Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Didi Gregorius.

The former New York Yankee joined the Phillies on a one-year prove-it deal, after he missed the first half of the 2019 regular season due to Tommy John surgery. Even though Gregorius proved himself to be one of the better shortstops in the game and had numerous clutch performances during his five seasons in the Bronx, his numbers last season were less than desirable (.238 batting average, .718 OPS). Those statistics wouldn't have yielded him a huge contract, and he really needed a bounce-back 2020 to prove he was still capable of being an above-average starter, long-term.

In an effort to maximize his opportunity, he reunited with former skipper Joe Girardi in Philly to prove to the Yankees and the other 28 teams in the league that he's still got it.

Now, with the season set to be shortened to between 80-100 games, Gregorius won't have the desired set of games to truly showcase his talents. In fact, he played in just 82 games last year, which is what netted him the Philly prove-it deal in the first place.

Make no mistake about it. Once the season commences, Gregorius will be placing plenty of pressure on himself.