Braves' Soroka: 80-game season would feel like playoffs all year

Atlanta Braves right-hander Mike Soroka is bracing for the possibility of playing only half a Major League Baseball season as a result of delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Soroka believes a reduced schedule would increase intensity and competition.

"It's going to almost feel like playoff baseball the entire year," Soroka told Sportsnet 590's "Good Show" on Wednesday. "Because 80 games in a division that's as close as ours is going to be, you're not going to have that time to create any gaps, right? ... I think you're going to see a ton of teams come out really guns blazing and you're going to see some cool things."

The 22-year-old Canadian acknowledged that a shortened campaign could have some issues, but noted that longer seasons do as well.

"It's going to feel real quick, but 80 games is still nothing to sneeze at," Soroka said. "Obviously, we talk about the NHL, and I think that the NHL plays probably too many games just because ... in a season that's really long, you're going to get games where guys just don't have that same intensity."

The earliest a new MLB season could start is mid-May in compliance with CDC recommendations. As of Wednesday, there have been more than 199,000 cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and 4,300-plus people have died of the disease, according to Johns Hopkins University.