*Photo from Yahoo! Sports*
Baseball is officially back. The MLBPA and MLB came to an agreement on the player health and safety protocols for the 2020 season, meaning that the 2020 season is officially all set to go. MLB implemented a 60 game season last night, and the MLBPA only had to sign off on the health agreements to get the season going.
Spring training will re-start on July 3, with camps opening on July 1. Teams are expected to practice at their own ballparks rather than travelling to Florida or Arizona for spring training. One exception is the Toronto Blue Jays, who will likely have to play out the season at their spring training site in Dunedin, FL, due to the border between the US and Canada still being closed. Opening day will take place on either July 23 or July 24, according to MLB.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement that "Major League Baseball is thrilled to announce that the 2020 season is on the horizon, we have provided the players' association with a schedule to play 60 games and are excited to provide our great fans with baseball again soon."
This season will be the shortest in baseball's history since 1878. The 60 game schedule will be based on geographical alignment. Each team will face their divisional opponents a combined 40 times, with a combined 20 games against interleague opponents from the same geographical region. An example is the AL East teams will play 20 games against NL East opponents.
Other features of the season include a August 31 trade deadline instead of July, 30 man rosters for the first two weeks, and a taxi squad of extra players for road games. Teams can have up to 60 players combined on their active roster and taxi squad roster. The long term 60 day IL will be replaced with a 45 day IL due to the shortened season.
On Monday, the MLB owners unanimously voted to implement a 60 game season under the terms of the agreement between MLB and the MLBPA in March. The season was put on hold on March 12 due to COVID-19 Pandemic worldwide, just weeks before opening day, which was slated to take place on March 26.
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