More details have come out regarding the upcoming truncated 2020 baseball season. Players will report for a second “spring” training by July 1, with most teams holding the camps at their home ballparks. One exception may be the Blue Jays, who are still looking for travel exceptions for players and opposing teams to be allowed into Canada. Most teams will kick off their 60-game schedule on July 24, with a handful of teams scheduled for national telecasts the day before.
To limit the amount of travel for each team, the reconfigured schedule would include 10 games against each team’s four divisional opponents, along with 20 interleague games against the corresponding division.
Several rule changes will be implemented during the season as part of the league’s health and safety protocols. The designated hitter will be used in both leagues, while team roster sizes will fluctuate from 30, when the season opens, to 26, after 4 weeks. The trade deadline will be August 31, while players must be on the major league roster by September 15 to be eligible for post-season play. Extra-inning games will see each half-inning begin with a runner on second base. In addition to the 40 man roster. teams will be allowed a taxi squad of 20 players, kept at an alternate site, to facilitate roster moves.
High risk players will be allowed to sit out the season while still getting paid and accruing service time. Players with high risk dependents will also be allowed to sit out, though their service time and payments will be on a case by case basis. Players on the 20-man taxi squad will not accrue service time, unless they are added to the major league roster. Also, a team of free agents may be set up in Nashville to keep in baseball shape should the need arise.
All in all, this will be the strangest season of baseball in my lifetime, and, possibly, of all time. Some of these rule changes will likely stick around, like the universal DH. Some, like the extra inning runner, are hopefully never seen again. Hopefully the season goes off without a hitch, avoiding a major outbreak of the corona virus that would shut down the season for a second time, and we can all get back to whatever passes for normal in 2021.