After a 100-day negotiation, MLB and MLBPA have finally agreed to terms to begin a 60-game 2020 season that will begin with players reporting July 1 and Opening Day scheduled for July 23 or 24.
MLB players agree to report for 60-game 2020 season; Opening Day to be set for July 24 | CBS Sports
R.J. Anderson breaks down some key points for the 2020 season, with one of them being the recent rise in COVID-19 cases both in the United States and within MLB. In the past few days, 40 MLB players and workers have tested positive for the virus, and all spring training sites have been ordered to be closed.
That being said, teams will be allowed to submit 60-player rosters, with the transaction freeze opening up Friday this week. We’re about to see more trades in the next week than we’ve seen all 2020.
MLB also announced it will have a trade deadline falling on August 31. The Athletic’s Jayson Stark tweeted out details on trade guidelines (see below).
According to the agreement, unsigned players will report to Nashville where it will host two teams of unsigned players to continue to train and practice. Players will be paid, and will most likely become replacement players should there be a need during the season.
MLB will also be implementing a COVID-specific inactive list. Players who test positive or show symptoms will be placed on the list, with no set amount of time the player will be out.
Let’s hope after waiting 100 days for baseball to finally be back, COVID-19 doesn’t complicate it any more, but it could.
As MLB staggers towards return, coronavirus cases hit new highs in key states | CBS Sports
Baseball is back, and we should all be excited! But something else is back: spikes in COVID-19 cases. Florida and Arizona, the spring training homes of all 30 MLB teams, each reported their highest single-day total of positive cases: 2,800 in Florida and 2,400 in Arizona. IN JUST ONE DAY.
Fifty percent of Arizona’s cases (39,097) are in Phoenix, the home of the Diamondbacks, while Pinellas County, home to the Tampa Bay Rays, saw its 14-day daily average in cases go from 19.7 on June 1 to 75.5 on June 15. That is a 282 percent increase for Florida in just two weeks!
California (five franchises) and Texas (two franchises) are two more states that have had massive spikes in positive cases. Texas had its highest single-day case total on June 16 with 2,622 cases. California’s seven-day average daily spike rose 47 percent.
I could easily just go down the list of every state that is home to an MLB franchise with the rise in case numbers, but I think you guys get the point by now. Even with health protocols in place, we are sending the players to COVID-19 hot spots to play baseball.
I’ll leave it to the health experts and protocols that have been put into place, but sending 60-man rosters to report for training in states that are already seeing a rise in cases may backfire more than the March 26 agreement did.
One thing that will be interesting to watch unfold, however, are the guidelines with players being traded on the August 31 deadline. Jayson Stark tweeted in response to MLB Network’s Joel Sherman regarding the protocol for players being traded in the middle of a pandemic:
One thing that's unclear until we see the health/safety protocols:
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) June 23, 2020
Would a player who gets traded in midseason have to be isolated for a period of time before joining his new team? https://t.co/7c5rk6KGkW
Will MLB require all traded players to quarantine for 14 days? Will players’ families join them or stay back to avoid any health risks? We’ll find out soon enough. But baseball is back everybody!
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