The league’s owners send a proposal to try to get games started within two months
The recent history of baseball will have one of its most important events today. It is the day in which MLB owners will present to players a proposal on how to run the 2020 season. Although these plans are not expected to have immediate acceptance, it seems like the right step toward MLB’s plans to restart the baseball activity this coming July.
The next step in this process is for the players to accept the new terms; if possible, the league could be returning to the field by July 4 – which has been the estimated date. This will be quite a different scenario in which games will take place in a stadium completely devoid of any fan participation.
But, before even thinking about official games of the season to start again, players need to get back into shape and return to practice. One of the MLB owners’ proposal was to hold Spring Training 2.0 starting sometime early next month. Once that part is done, the regular season will have 82 regular-season games, most of them interdivisional matchups.
The post-season also comes with changes. The race for the Pennant will be expanded to 14 teams, instead of the usual ten. This would be made possible through the inclusion of twice as many wild card spots in each league. Another change coming is the All-Star game, which was scheduled for July 14. It will most likely have to be scrapped.
After the severe impact from the coronavirus pandemic, it is safe to say that a normal season can’t run, anyway. Most likely, games will be played at spring training stadiums or approved neural sites if local governments don’t allow home games.
