The 2020 MLB regular season promises to be unlike any other season in baseball history. The COVID-19 pandemic has shortened Joe Panik Jersey the season to 60 games, making it the shortest baseball season since 1877, and there will be a universal DH and an extra-inning tiebreaker rule. It will be weird, but MLB is doing what it can given the circumstances.COVID-19 has hurt every industry immensely, even one as profitable as Major League Baseball. Teams have lost 102 games worth of revenue and they'll lose more revenue going forward as games are played without fans. The financial burden will undoubtedly trickle down to the players through free agency and arbitration. Payrolls are expected to shrink in 2021.Top-tier free agents like and should be OK this offseason. Their contracts may not be as large as initially expected, but they're still elite players, and they're going to get paid well. The second- and third-tier free agents figure to feel the squeeze the most. They're the players who will get smaller offers.Some impending free agents have more on the line than others during this unusual 2020 season. Maybe they're coming back from injuries, or trying to prove their 2019 breakout was no fluke, or simply looking to prove they still have something to contribute late in their careers. Here are the seven impending free agents with the most on the line this summer. NYM LF #52 2019 stats Did not playInjured The designated hitter has come to the National League, and while it is technically a temporary measure to protect pitchers during the shortened season, it is only a matter of time until it becomes permanent. It could happen as soon as 2021, though maybe we'll have to wait until the next collective bargaining agreement in 2022. Either way, it's coming.The universal DH helps players like , the veterans Mauricio Dubon Jersey who can still contribute with the bat but shouldn't play the field because they are defensive liabilities and/or have trouble staying healthy. Cespedes, now 34, has not played since July 2018 because of heel surgeries and a , though he's healthy now and impre sing in Summer Camp. Here's Yoenis Cspedes taking batting practice at Citi Field. The first and last swings were homers.(If you listen closely at the very end, you can hear a thud as the ball strikes a seat in left field.) Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) "He looks like a monster. He looks like he's motivated," told reporters, , earlier this week. "... To get Yo in the lineup on an everyday basis, that's going to be absolutely incredible for us. It's something that we haven't had, and we're pretty excited about it." With an additional 15 DH jobs on the horizon, Cespedes will have a greater chance to extend his career beyond 2020. He has to show everyone he can hit first, and he'll have to do it during a short season following what is now a two-year layoff. At Melvin Adon Jersey his age and with his injury history, there's little chance Cespedes will ever sign another big contract. For him, this season is simply about staying in the game and continuing his career. LAA RF #9 2019 stats BA0.279R103HR15RBI49SB15 Betts and Springer are the clearly the top two outfielders set hit free agency this season. , , and make up the second tier. is in the next tier with guys like Jr. and . The 31-year-old remains a pesky on-base guy and he hasn't posted a sub-100 OPS+ since 2013.Injuries, however, limited Eaton to 118 of 324 po sible games from 2017-18. He stayed healthy last season and played in 151 games, the third-highest total in his eight seasons, and a healthy 60-game season in 2020 could be the difference between a one-year contract and a multi-year contract this winter. The shutdown gave his body time to recover and staying healthy for two months isn't too much to ask Madison Bumgarner Jersey , is it? It should be noted Eaton's contract includes a $10.5 million club option for 2021. That still might be a little too rich for the . and have escalating salaries, is making good money through arbitration, and a mega-deal is presumably on the horizon. Eaton wants to show the 2017-18 injuries are in the past in 2020. Ken Giles RP 2019 stats ERA1.87WHIP1.00IP53BB17K83 Decent chance will be the best reliever to hit the open market this offseason. and are scheduled to become free agents as well, though their track records as lockdown elite relievers are shorter, and they're both several years older than Giles. No other impending free agent reliever offers the same combination of youth and dominance.As good as the 29-year-old Giles was last season -- and he was -- his second half was interrupted by elbow woes. He only visited the injured list once and it was for the minimum 10 days, but the handled him very carefully down the stretch. Only once in the second half did Giles pitch on back-to-back days, and 15 of his 22 appearances after the All-Star break came with at least two days of rest. A healthy 60-game season in 2020, complete with frequent appearances on back-to-back days, would go a long way to convincing teams Giles is healthy and his elbow is a non-i sue Brandon Crawford Jersey . Baseball is so bullpen-centric these days that Giles will get signed no matter what. Health figures to be the difference between a one-year prove yourself deal or a three-year contract a la . TB SP #28 2019 stats ERA5.80WHIP1.65IP35 2/3BB15K38 It's not often a two-time Cy Young award winner has something to prove heading into free agency, but does. He is 34 now and he lost most of the 2019 season to injuries. Neither injury was a structural arm injury (shoulder, elbow, etc.) -- Kluber had his forearm broken by a comebacker and then suffered an abdomen strain during his rehab -- though it equaled a lot of mi sed time.Also, Kluber was not especially good before the injuries. He had a 5.80 ERA in 35 2/3 innings with his lowest strikeout rate (22.6 percent), his highest walk rate (8.9 percent), and his lowest ground ball rate (40.0 percent) since becoming a full-time big leaguer in 2013. Some of the underlying numbers have been trending in the wrong direction: Average fastball velocityStrikeout rateHard-hit rateExpected AVGExpected SLG201792.5 mph34.1%29.2%.211.336201892.0 mph26.4%34.3%.236.377201991.3 mph22.6%38.4%.256.453Fewer strikeouts and more hard contact equals an unsurprising rise in expected batting average and slugging percentage allowed, per Statcast. Those 2019 numbers come in a small sample size, so we have to take them with a grain of salt, but that's all the information we have on Kluber for last season. That's the last time teams saw him on the mound.That will change when the 60-game season begins in two weeks. Kluber is with the now and will pitch in a brand new park -- for what it's worth, -- and he's pitching this season to prove those 35 2/3 Alen Hanson Jersey innings last year were a blip, not the new normal. Texas holds an $18 million club option on Kluber for 2021 and that suddenly l