On June 22nd, the Major League Baseball Players’ Association (MLBPA) voted “no” to the latest proposal to get things underway for 2020. Just a few hours later, it became known that a 60-game, 2020 Major League Baseball season was going to be implemented, barring two questions that needed to be answered from MLBPA officials. Now, both items were responded to with a “yes,” and there will be Major League Baseball in 2020.
The league has announced its plan for the 2020 regular season following the agreement from MLBPA officials to getting players to Spring Training in as little as a week as well as agreeing to the latest health and safety protocols.
2020 @MLB regular season announced; players to report on July 1st; openers anticipated for July 23rd or 24th in 60-game season pic.twitter.com/w72vagahLx
— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) June 24, 2020
Major League Baseball is back, in just about a month the 2020 regular season will kick off for 60 total games where teams will play 40 games within the division and 20 interleague games against geographical opponents.
This means that a team like the Detroit Tigers will play against the American League Central opponents for 40 games. They will also take on opponents from the National League Central for 20 games throughout the 2020 season as well.
Other rule changes for the 2020 season include adopting the minor league rules for extra innings. In an effort to avoid 15-inning extra-inning games, the league will start extra innings with a runner on second base. Besides this, the league will also be adopting a universal designated hitter.
On top of these rule changes, the league also noted some other changes. For example, the trade deadline, which is usually July 31st, has been pushed back a month to August 31st. The injured list has some interesting tweaks/clauses that will allow for quarantine for players who develop or have COVID-19 symptoms.
The main takeaway from all of this is that baseball is back, and a 2020 Major League Baseball season is going to get underway as camps will open July 1st. The health and safety protocols will come first, especially with fears of a second wave, but the league is going to move forward with this plan until they say otherwise.
