If we do get baseball in 2020...

[Mohoney]

...What will the concept of pitching look like?

Think of those first few turns through the rotation every spring. Starters usually don’t go as deep into games. Some guys just don’t feel fully extended until long past spring training has ended. Plus, it looks like rosters will be 30 active players, with a taxi squad on top of that.

Will we see a traditional 5-man rotation and plug-and-play bullpen, or will we see something different? With some guys coming back from Tommy John surgery and other guys still learning how to be a major league pitcher, maybe some games can feature a pair of starters.

I was thinking perhaps something like this:

Giolito and Keuchel eat as many innings as possible every 5th day as solo starters.

Gio Gonzalez and Rodon pair with Kopech and Cease in some permutation.

Lopez and Fulmer are co-5th-starters, both of them being given a last gasp in 2020 to show something for 2021.

After that, it would be a typical 7-man bullpen. Fry, Cordero, Marshall, Cishek, Herrera, Bummer, and Colomé would be my guess.

[Krs1]

Hopefully the pitchers have been going at it so they can have an early advantage on the hitters.

[HomeFish]

I don't believe the Sox will do anything unconventional with their rotation. I'm looking forward to seeing what more innovative teams like the Rays will do.

[A. Cavatica]

...What will the concept of pitching look like?

Games will take longer because of the need to disinfect everything after every play. Fans (watching at home) will be bored, so MLB will institute a 12 batter minimum for pitchers and juice the ball. (There’s no need to disinfect a ball hit out of the park.)

The networks will run ads between batters. Players’ walk-up songs will be replaced by jingles.

The pitchers will have gobs of hand sanitizer under the bills of their caps. This will lead to more breaking balls.

The batter’s box will be moved four feet toward the mound. This will improve batters’ ability to connect with those breaking balls, and reduce their effectiveness on fastballs. The net effect will be increases in batting averages and home runs. If it doesn’t work out that way, MLB will juice the ball more.

Due to players’ face masks, players’ fielding efficiencies — especially those for catchers — will decline. Unearned runs will increase.

Umpires, moved back four feet from the catcher, will have a great deal of trouble calling balls and strikes. This will cause MLB to rush a prototype of an electronic umpire into production before it’s ready. Teams will respond by prioritizing offense at catcher.

More balls will fall between outfielders because of the six foot rule.

With teams scoring twice as many runs as ever before, teams will spend all their extra roster spots on pitchers.

[thomas35forever]

Games will take longer because of the need to disinfect everything after every play. Fans (watching at home) will be bored, so MLB will institute a 12 batter minimum for pitchers and juice the ball. (There’s no need to disinfect a ball hit out of the park.)

The networks will run ads between batters. Players’ walk-up songs will be replaced by jingles.

The pitchers will have gobs of hand sanitizer under the bills of their caps. This will lead to more breaking balls.

The batter’s box will be moved four feet toward the mound. This will improve batters’ ability to connect with those breaking balls, and reduce their effectiveness on fastballs. The net effect will be increases in batting averages and home runs. If it doesn’t work out that way, MLB will juice the ball more.

Due to players’ face masks, players’ fielding efficiencies — especially those for catchers — will decline. Unearned runs will increase.

Umpires, moved back four feet from the catcher, will have a great deal of trouble calling balls and strikes. This will cause MLB to rush a prototype of an electronic umpire into production before it’s ready. Teams will respond by prioritizing offense at catcher.

More balls will fall between outfielders because of the six foot rule.

With teams scoring twice as many runs as ever before, teams will spend all their extra roster spots on pitchers.

Geez. Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed.

[vegandork]

With 60 games in 70 days...you'd have to assume most teams will go 4 man. What's likely to happen is even teams that don't will skip a turn for the fifth starter when possible. So instead of 5 starters each getting 12 starts, you'd see the fifth starter only get like 6 starts and giving the rest of the rotation 1 or 2 more starts.