Report: AJ Hinch, Jeff Luhnow Satisfy Suspensions Even If Season Is Canceled

Former Houston Astros manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow will satisfy their one-year suspensions even if the 2020 MLB season is canceled in its entirety, according to ESPN's Buster Olney.

On Jan. 13, commissioner Rob Manfred handed down unprecedented punishments, leveling one-year suspensions, as a result of MLB's investigation into the Astros' sign-stealing practices in the 2017 and 2018 seasons. 

Both Hinch and Luhnow were subsequently fired by Astros owner Jim Crane an hour after the report was released.

Per ESPN, because their respective suspensions are linked to the end of the 2020 postseason rather than a specific number of games, the two would be eligible to return to the sport in the 2021 season. 

In the report itself, the punishments are worded in the following way: Both men "shall be suspended without pay for the period beginning on January 13, 2020, and ending on the day following the completion of the 2020 World Series."

Last week, MLB and the MLBPA reached an agreement regarding player service-time if the season does get canceled. 

According to multiple reports, in the worst-case scenario that the entire 2020 season is canceled, players would receive their full service time. That means the players heading into their final years before free agency—a group that includes Mookie Betts, Trevor Bauer, George Springer, Marcus Stroman, among others—would become free agents next winter, whether or not games are played.

MLB's season is currently suspended indefinitely amid the global coronavirus pandemic.