How about MLB players take the season off and we let baseball’s scrubs play instead?

Word is that some Major League Baseball stars aren’t sold on the idea of playing games in an uncertain environment for something less than half of their contracted salary amount.

Meanwhile, MLB team owners said they could lose as much as $4 billion this year by playing games in empty ballparks, paying players multi-million — albeit reduced — salaries without revenue from tickets, concessions and at least half of their local and national television compensation. What is everyone to do?

How about this: Tell everyone on the teams’ 40-man rosters to take the year off. Don’t risk getting prime players and top prospects injured or sick in a baseball season of dubious meaning. Instead, each team could invite only players who aren’t signed to major league deals or protected on the 40-man rosters to participate during the 2020 season. Pay the players a flat $200,000 each. That way 30-year-old Class AAA players and middle of the road prospects in the lower minors would have a chance to earn some good money to entertain fans, but at a rate that would be much more affordable for owners to swallow. If players don’t want to take the risk of traveling and playing, that’s up to them. It would hurt the fans less to have anonymous players take a pass than to have their favorites sit it out at the expense of their home team.

A 35-player roster would cost each owner $7 million for the 2020 campaign. If the St. Louis Cardinals used their regulars in 2020, half of Yadier Molina’s salary would be $10 million for just one player. The entire St. Louis roster, if the Cardinals go 35 players deep, would cost roughly $90 million if the regulars were used. It would certainly soften the financial blow the owners would weather significantly.

Would watching second-tier players be as exciting as watching the superstars? In a word, no. But some of the superstars, including the Phillies’ Bryce Harper, have expressed concern about taking more than a 50 percent pay cut and putting their families in danger of exposure to COVID-19 in the process. So there is no guarantee those guys are going to play anyway. What if the Cardinals were told by Paul Goldschmidt, Adam Wainwright, Paul DeJong and Kolten Wong that they didn’t want to play under the current conditions but the other teams in the division St. Louis was facing for a playoff spot had everyone on their roster join in? Worse, what if Goldschmidt tore his Achilles tendon running to first base in a game the 15-30 makeshift Cardinals were losing to the Minnesota Twins? Accidents happen and a career could be ended in a game that never should have happened.

So let the kids play. Just give the MLB season a pass. Don’t call the team that represents St. Louis the Cardinals and don’t call the team that represents Los Angeles the Dodgers. The records shouldn’t count for the individual players and the team records shouldn’t count either. Don’t play a World Series. If they want to have a 2020 baseball championship, fine. But no Commissioner’s Trophy should be awarded.

What happens if some of the best players sit out and because of it someone hits .400 or wins a triple crown for the first time in more than half a century? Could that possibly be legitimate? It’s worth noting that the Cardinals finished in last place during the pandemic-plagued 1918 baseball season, losing a journeyman player in the process. Catcher Harry Glenn, who lost his life due to the Spanish Flu will serving in the U.S. Army, made his major league debut with St. Louis during the 1915 season. Would the Cardinals want a last place finish on their resume when the 1990 season is the only other time they’ve finished last in the past 102 years? I know I wouldn’t if I was in charge.

Anyway, I think it could be interesting to watch some lesser known players ply their trade. Without the major league sluggers, maybe we would see more of a well-rounded game with more stolen bases and hit and run plays. Maybe, like with the XFL, we’ll see some talented players get a second chance to prove they can play at the highest level of the game.

Bottom line, by using lesser known players, it seems baseball has everything to gain and nothing to lose. By being snubbed by stars and risking the marquee players of the game to injury and illness in a meaningless season, they would have everything to lose and nothing to gain.

Scott Wuerz

Belleville News-Democrat

Scott Wuerz has written “Cheap Seats,” a St. Louis Cardinals fan blog for the Belleville News-Democrat, since 2007. He is a former BND reporter who covered breaking news and education.