MLB is Back

6.25.20

This year, the MLB had planned for an Opening Day including all 30 teams. It was supposed to be in March, the earliest of baseball’s start. Unfortunately, with coronavirus, there was an intensifying change of plans.

Not only has it been three months since baseball was supposed to begin, but the association could not come to an agreement on how they would move forward with the 2020 MLB season. Since the season could not be played with fans in the stadiums, money was a concern as the ball parks would not be making money. Players contracts state they still get their money, managers wanted 50/50, there was a ton of disagreement going on.

Finally, the MLB and the MLBPA (Player’s Association) have come to some kind of an agreement. Though the players had pushed for more, the MLB will conduct a 60 game 2020 season. Players will report for their ‘spring’ training on July 1st, and Open Day will begin on July 23rd or 24th. The regular season should run through September 27th, with a normal Play Off post season to be taken place come October.

Typically, there are 162 games in a baseball season, so this is a dramatic cut. Happy to have the sport back, but the season will have many differences. Most training camps will be held at the teams’ home stadium. Teams will play their four divisional opponents ten times. The other twenty games will be played against other teams in similar geographical areas. This means the fun American League vs. National League games will not exist in the regular season.

The National League will work with a DH. I am not totally sure why this is necessary, but perhaps it has something to do with the pitcher having his team to sanitize, drink water and take the necessary precautions instead of worrying about swinging a bat, too.

In extra innings, a player will begin on second base. This has been in talks for a while now. I do not love it, but it should keep the game moving a bit quicker. I believe this is what the league is hoping for in order to not hold large groups together for a long, extended amount of time.

A full team roster will start with 30 men for two weeks, 28 for the next two weeks, then 26 for the remainder of the season. I assume this will allow the guys to get ready together, feel out their best squad, and only bring who they need to the table, just to shed some few bodies on the situation. There will be taxi squads to shuttle in players that may need to be switched out during the span of the games.

Players are expected to be tested every other day. While I think this is pretty scary and can be quite uncomfortable for these guys, if they choose not to comply with the rules, they will not play, nor get paid.

Friday afternoon, rosters will unfreeze and trade may be executed until the new trade deadline which has been drawn at August 31st.

Sixty games in sixty-six days. A two month baseball season. It seems like many players are excited to come back. I hope they bring their all and we still manage to make the most of this situation. Baseball is back.