The start of the 2020 MLB baseball season could be 51 days away if we are to believe those anonymous sources in the MLB office.
The plan is being tweaked daily, but we do have a few more details about the upcoming planned baseball season.
The plan is to have spring training at home ball parks, if possible. If not, then the teams minor league facilities would have to do.
There will be about a three week window for spring training, with the season expected to kick-off July 1.
As first reported in the Athletic, teams would play an 80 game schedule which would put the regular season on track to wrap up by the end of September.
Teams would begin the regular season playing with no fans in the stands, but MLB are hoping that some fans could see live baseball at stadiums depending on how well the COVID-19 pandemic is controlled by late summer.
The playoffs would expand to seven teams versus the five teams from the American and National Leagues.
There is talk of raising the roster limit to 40-50 players. This arrangement may be similar to what the NFL does does on game day.
The NFL has a 56 man roster limit with 48 allowed to dress on game day. This could be a strategy that MLB would institute.
All games would be played within a 10 team division.
The Rays would be in the East with their rivals the Yankees and Red Sox, Plus the Orioles, Braves, Marlins, Mets, Nationals, Blue Jays and Phillies.
This is all based of course on owners and the players union signing off on the agreement.
And there is also the issue of compensation which will be the toughest hurdle top overcome.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope that by mid-June, we are seeing teams gather for a second spring training, in anticipation of a start to the 2020 season on July 1.
