Jeff Passan says fans and players are the most affected by the 2020 minor league baseball season being canceled.

In news that was entirely unsurprising, Minor League Baseball president Pat O'Conner announced Tuesday that this year's minor league season has been canceled.

Although the news was expected, that didn't lessen the general fear and uncertainty about the immediate future of professional baseball swelling below the level of Major League Baseball.

Minor league teams weren't going to get them and were officially informed as such this week.

-- with which their Major League Baseball overlords can develop future players.

Teams have been announcing player pools of up to 60 players for the truncated big league season, but that's it.

However, this will be done through practice, simulated games and workouts, as opposed to the competition of minor league games.

Simply put: Big league teams will not be assigning players to their affiliates.

Thus minor league teams could not have conducted a season even if they wanted to?

Some of those players -- and other lesser prospects who would otherwise qualify as organizational depth -- will indeed play in the majors as teams try to navigate this unusual, 60-game season.

Teams released scores of minor leaguers in recent weeks in advance of the season resumption announcement.

Some teams, such as the Kansas City Royals, have pledged to pay players until the end of what would have been the regular minor league season.

One silver lining is that minor league players will receive service time credit even with the season being canceled.

Nevertheless, even for those clubs, the loss of an entire season is a major setback.

Although the taxi squads won't participate in games in front of fans, presumably MLB teams will have to compensate minor league clubs for the use of their facilities.

Recent talks between MLB and MiLB have been sporadic, as big league owners had their own season to worry about.

When they do, MLB negotiators will proceed with the knowledge that many minor league clubs are operating in precarious terrain.

That was true before the minor league season was called off, but now that it has been, MiLB's worst-case scenario has become reality.

To put it succinctly: Nearly every avenue that minor league owners had to create leverage in their effort to stave off contraction has been blocked.

What will minor league baseball look like when it returns.

That isn't likely to happen, mostly because of the expense that would come with setting up an entirely new minor league system -- new teams, new venues, a new infrastructure and what would likely be a whole slew of litigation by MiLB owners and municipalities of contracted teams

Expect to see a reduced list of affiliated teams next season, a shuffling of affiliations and a restructuring of the leagues themselves as major league clubs seek greater geographic efficiency

When the minor league season ended last summer, business was good -- perhaps as good as it had ever been

Now we don't know what the landscape will look like when we next see affiliated baseball at the minor league level