The majority of players in affiliated, pro baseball (those not on 60-man rosters) are not going to be playing in any games or practices held by their orgs for months. And the MLB season is hardly a sure thing at this point ...

Twins MiLB pitcher @mhoracek14 told us “Unfortunately, any way you cut it, baseball will be less talented next year in aggregate." That would not be great. ...

I was curious how groups of players returned after non-injury layoffs of at least a year. So with @kennyjackelen's help, we looked at the WWII-era specifically, and then all those who lost time to military service (but played before and after service)...

There were 98 players who lost at least a year to the WWII theatres and played before and after service. They began to return in '45 (and faced a majority of MLB competition that also played in '44 and '45 -- 343 players). The good news? Not much decline. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-a-year-off-might-do-to-baseball-players-skills/

And in this day and age, games are perhaps not as important to skill development as they once were (See: Adam Ottavino remaking himself in a Manhattan storefront, Justin Turner and JDM rebuilding swings in spartan facilities, etc, etc) ...

But there's no doubt that missing games is not ideal. And perhaps more troubling for the industry's overall talent base is @mhoracek14's kicker: how many guys will return?

Something of an aside but Ted Williams missed his Age 24, 25 AND 26 seasons to WWII (think about where his career numbers could have been) and then returned to win the AL MVP. Amazing.