MLB owners approve plan to restart baseball season in July

The players’ union will have to agree to proposal before season begins

The owners of Major League Baseball teams announced it will make a proposal to the players’ union that may result in a start to baseball season around the Fourth of July weekend.

The season was delayed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but under the MLB’s plan would kick off with spring training in early to mid-June and the season beginning in full around the Fourth of July.

The Associated Press reported that under the proposal, each team would play approximately 82 regular-season games, primarily against division opponents but with some limited interleague matchups. Those matchups would be AL East vs NL East, Al Central vs NL Central and Al West vs NL West. Because some 40 per cent of games would include interleague play, the proposal would also include the National League implementing the designated hitter.

Games would be played in ballparks without fans.

Postseason games would be expanded from 10 teams to 14 through doubling of wild cards in each league to four. The All-Star Game would likely be cancelled.

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Teams that can play at their home ballparks will continue to, but teams that lack medical and government approval to play may have to play in alternative venues. As a result, the Toronto Blue Jays may have to play their home games in Dunedin, Florida.

Of all the proposed changes, the one most likely to hold up baseball‘s return has to do with salaries. Teams are likely to propose that players receive a percentage of their 2020 salaries based on MLB revenues during the regular-season and postseason.

If adopted, the proposal would be the first time in MLB history that teams would share their revenue with players, but it would still result in an overall pay cut for the players, who have already agreed to prorated salaries for the season. As it stands, players will already lose about half of their annual salaries.

As a result, the player’s union is likely to push back on any plan that reduces players’ salaries further.