Major League Baseball 60-game season officially set with Opening Day July 23 or 24
Baseball is back! The 2020 season, coronavirus willing, will start on July 23 or July 24 around the country.
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The Major League Baseball owners and players' union officially agreed on all the necessary health and safety protocols Tuesday night to lock in a 2020 regular season of 60 games (37 percent of a normal 162-game season) with Opening Day set for Thursday, July 23 or Friday the 24th – although the coronavirus could change that. For example, it also came out Tuesday that three members of the Colorado Rockies have tested positive for COVID-19 following recent workouts at Coors Field in Denver, including All-Star outfielder Charlie Blackmon. There also was a big outbreak at Phillies spring camp in Florida.
All players will need to report to spring training camps in their home cities (not spring cities) by July 1 so that they can begin testing for the virus. Thus, spring training will technically begin July 3.
The official schedule for every team has not been released yet (should be within three days), but clubs will play 10 games against teams in their own division (40 total) and 20 games against teams in interleague play – i.e. AL East vs. NL East, AL Central vs. NL Central to mitigate travel. Natural interleague rivals like the Yankees-Mets, White Sox-Cubs, Angels Dodgers and A's-Giants will play one another six times apiece. The postseason will be its usual format with 10 teams.
For the first time ever, there will be a designated hitter used in National League parks – but that could be just a one-year thing. It's to help protect the health of pitchers so they don't have to bat, run the bases, etc. Many believe the MLB and players' union will agree on a universal DH, though, for 2021 and beyond at some point.
All extra-inning regular-season games will start with a runner on second base beginning in the top of the 10th to help ensure no 16-inning affairs, etc. The three-batter minimum for pitchers, which commissioner Rob Manfred instituted before the shutdown, will stay in place.
To help try and avoid the spread of COVID-19, pitchers can bring a wet rag to the mound as an alternative to licking their fingers. There are numerous other coronavirus-related precautions being put into place in the locker rooms, bench, with media, etc.
Teams can have 30 players on their Opening Day rosters that will gradually be reduced to 26-man rosters by the end of the first month. There will be no expanded rosters as per usual in September. The transaction freeze that has been in place since March 26 will be lifted at noon on the fifth day prior to spring training.
The injured list for all players this season will be 10 days, but there will be a special coronavirus-related "injured" list as well. That would not be subject to a limit of days.
There's a trade deadline of Aug. 31 (usually July 31), but don't expect much action considering the season will end on Sept. 27, so that's a very short rental for a player. Plus, teams likely will be a bit apprehensive trading a guy during a pandemic where he would have to possibly move his family, etc.
Major League Baseball has the right to relocate teams during the regular season and playoffs to neutral sites for health and safety reasons. In addition, all high-risk players when it comes the virus are allowed to opt out just like in the NBA. However, those players who opt out and aren't high-risk would not be paid.
William Hill sportsbook should re-release all its 2020 season props soon, and there hasn't been much change for obvious reason on the team futures odds. The Yankees and Dodgers are co-favorites on the moneyline odds to win the World Series at +400. They haven't met in the Fall Classic since 1981.
That 1981 season was shortened due to the players' strike. Teams played between around 103-109 regular-season games split into two halves. The last time a regular major-league schedule called for teams to compete in fewer than 85 games was 1882.
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