2020 Major League Baseball season


The 2020 Major League Baseball season has been shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Spring training resumed on July 1 rebranded as "Summer Camp". Each team will play 60 regular season games, which began on July 23 with the defending World Series champion Washington Nationals facing the New York Yankees, and is scheduled to end on September 27. An expanded 16-team postseason tournament is then scheduled to begin on September 29. The World Series is set to begin on October 23, and a potential Game 7 would be played on October 31.
The full 162-game regular season was originally scheduled to begin on March 26. However the pandemic caused Major League Baseball to announce on March 12 that the remainder of spring training games were canceled and that the start of the regular season would be delayed by at least two weeks. Four days later, MLB announced that the season would be postponed indefinitely, following recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to restrict events of more than 50 people for an eight-week period. This was the first time MLB games have been put on hold since the 2001 season, when the season was paused for over a week after the September 11 attacks.
On July 3, the All-Star Game was canceled because the regular season's start was delayed to late July. Dodger Stadium, which was set to host the game, will now host the 2022 All-Star Game.
On July 18, the Canadian federal government denied the Toronto Blue Jays permission to play their home games at Rogers Centre this season on grounds that repeated cross-border trips by both the Blue Jays and their opponents would be a major risk due to the higher spikes in COVID-19 cases in the U.S. compared to those in Canada. The Blue Jays will play their home games at Sahlen Field in Buffalo, the home of their Triple-A affiliate Buffalo Bisons.

Schedule

The schedule greatly differs from the normal 162-game schedule. In an effort to reduce travel, each team will play only nine opponents during the regular season instead of the usual 19 or 20. Teams are scheduled to play 10 games against each of their four division opponents. The remaining 20 games of the 60-game schedule are interleague contests. To reduce travel, the interleague division match-ups will be AL East vs NL East, AL Central vs NL Central, and AL West vs NL West. At 60 games, this will be the shortest regular season since 1878.
Several international and neutral-site games originally scheduled for the season have been canceled:
The St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago White Sox are scheduled to play on August 13 in the inaugural MLB at Field of Dreams game. A temporary 8,000-seat ballpark is planned for construction on the Dyersville, Iowa farm site of the 1989 sports film Field of Dreams. This will be the first major league game played in Iowa. The 1875 Keokuk Westerns of Keokuk, Iowa, competed in the National Association, the first professional baseball league, whose status as a major league is in dispute and is not recognized by Major League Baseball or the Baseball Hall of Fame. The New York Yankees were originally scheduled to face the White Sox, but were replaced by the Cardinals after MLB changed the schedule.

March agreement between MLB and MLBPA

On March 26, MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association reached agreement on multiple considerations related to the start of the season being delayed, including:
The indefinite delay of the season caused MLB to internally consider a number of scenarios for playing the season, as well as analysts suggesting ways it could be done. A shortened regular season, a season with many doubleheaders, and a postseason extending into late November with a World Series at an indoor or warm-weather neutral site were suggested.
In early April, Jeff Passan of ESPN reported that MLB was "increasingly focused on a plan that could allow them to start the season as early as May and has the support of high-ranking federal public health officials". The plan would have involved all 30 teams playing games with no fans in stadiums around the Phoenix metropolitan area, including Chase Field and spring training complexes. Players would have lived in isolation at local hotels.
Another report from USA Today baseball writer Bob Nightengale detailed another MLB proposal utilizing the Phoenix metro sites, but with the additional use of spring training sites in Florida, Marlins Park in Miami, and St. Petersburg's Tropicana Field. In addition, the 30 teams would be re-aligned for the season depending on their spring training sites into six divisions based upon their locations in Arizona and Florida and agnostic to the usual AL/NL demarcations and traditional geographic rivalries, effectively making the spring training Cactus League and Grapefruit League regular-season leagues. No interleague play would take place and the designated hitter rule would be utilized for all 30 teams, with the World Series occurring in November utilizing the larger MLB sites.

Disagreement over plans for a shortened season

During May and June, MLB and Major League Baseball Players Association were unable to agree on a specific plan for a shortened season.
In mid-May the MLB owners proposed a schedule of 82 games, to begin in July, with games to be played without fans in attendance. To minimize travel, teams would play only against other teams in their geographical division, plus interleague games against teams in the corresponding division of the other league. A team would play 13 games against each division rival and six games against each team in the other league's division. Postseason play would be expanded from 10 teams to 14, with each league fielding three division winners and four wild card teams. A designated hitter would be allowed in all games. Teams would have 30-man rosters available for each game. The proposal also outlined safety measures for health of players and staff and a modified compensation plan for players.
On June 1, the MLBPA countered with an 114-game proposal, with a regular season running from June 30 to October 31, a November postseason, giving players the right to opt-out of participating, a salary deferral plan in the event the postseason has to be canceled due to a second wave of the virus, and a $100 million advance during the second spring training, among others.
Owners then submitted a 76-game proposal to the players on June 8, with the regular season ending on September 27, the postseason ending in October, 75 percent prorated player salaries, and playoff pool money, among others. The MLBPA responded one day later with an 89-game plan with full prorated player salaries. The owners then sent a 72-game plan with 70 percent prorated player salaries, to which the MLBPA replied in a statement on June 13, "Further dialogue with the league would be futile. It's time to get back to work. Tell us when and where." However, the week of June 15 saw the owners propose a 60-game season while MLBPA counter with a 70-game season, which on June 19 was rejected by the owners.
Amid an increase in cases in Arizona and Florida, including positive cases among staff of the Phillies, and a Blue Jays player showing signs of symptoms, it was reported on June 19 that all spring training sites would be temporarily closed for deep cleaning, and all players would be required to test negative for COVID-19 before entering. It was then reported on June 20 that almost all MLB teams had elected to re-locate their training camps back to their home cities.
On June 22, hours after the MLBPA rejected the MLB's offer to play a 60-game season, MLB owners voted unanimously to impose the 60-game plan. By allowing the owners to unilaterally implement such a plan without the MLBPA, both sides retained the right to file a grievance against the other for not negotiating in good faith. On June 23, both sides agreed to health and safety protocols. Players reported to training camp July 1. Due to concerns related to the pandemic, several players chose not to play the season.

Revised 60-game schedule

On July 6, Major League Baseball released the revised schedule for the shortened 60-game season. In the new schedule, teams play 10 games against each of their four divisional opponents in three series, with an unequal number of home games against each opponent. Each team will have 20 home games for division opponents.
Interleague play will comprise the other 20 games of the schedule, all against the division of the opposite league, temporarily suspending the yearly rotation of which divisions play each other. Like normal seasons in which corresponding interleague divisions play each other, teams will play six games against their "natural rival" and three or four games against each of the other four teams in the division. However, for this year only, the Cleveland Indians were paired with the Pittsburgh Pirates instead of their normal rivals, the Cincinnati Reds and the Detroit Tigers were paired with the Reds instead of the Pirates. This was done to reduce travel for all four teams.
The season started on July 23, with two games: New York Yankees at Washington Nationals and San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers. The remaining 26 teams opened the season on July 24.
On July 23, MLB and MLBPA announced that the postseason will be an expanded 16-team playoff tournament for 2020 only, instead of the normal 10-team tournament. All first and second place teams in the six divisions will qualify for the playoffs. The final two spots in each league will go to the remaining teams with the best win-loss records. The teams in each league will be seeded by division winners, division runner-ups, and best teams remaining. Seeding ties will be resolved by head-to-head record, intra-league record, and record in final 20 intra-league games, to remove the necessity for additional games. The first round of the playoffs will be a best-of-3 series called the Wild Card Series, with all games to be played at the home of the higher seeded team. After that the postseason will follow the usual pattern of five-game Division series, seven-game League Championship Series, and a seven-game World Series.

Postponed games

COVID-19 outbreaks among the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals resulted in the postponement of 17 games. The Marlins received confirmation that starting pitcher José Ureña had tested positive and would not be available on July 26, but the team decided to play their scheduled series in Philadelphia. The Marlins later confirmed that 21 players and coaches tested positive. The Cardinals had six positive tests resulting in the postponement of three games against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Division

Managerial changes

General managers

Offseason

Field managers

Offseason

Rule changes

Permanent changes announced prior to season

The following changes, effective for the 2020 season, were officially announced by MLB on February 12:
The following temporary rules for the shortened 2020 season were announced on June 24. Note that some of these additional changes supersede the rule changes announced in February 2020. Some of these rules will be affected by the cancelation of the 2020 Minor League Baseball season on June 30, which means there will be no minor league teams for player demotion:

Pitchers

On January 25, 2019, it was announced that Nike would become the new exclusive uniform supplier for all MLB teams, under a 10-year deal beginning in 2020. Under Armour backed out of its existing supply agreement as a cost-cutting measure.

Anniversaries and special events

Wholesale changes
The San Diego Padres changed the primary colors of their uniforms from navy blue to brown and gold, the team's primary colors from 1969–84.
The Arizona Diamondbacks tweaked their uniforms, including removing the darker away uniforms and the diamond pattern on the uniforms.
The St. Louis Cardinals made changes to their logo as it appears on their caps.
The Cincinnati Reds added a new alternate jersey and a new spring training jersey.
The Washington Nationals added two new alternate hats and one alternate white jersey.
The Milwaukee Brewers introduced new uniforms, including a return to the ball-in-glove logo used as their primary logo from 1978–93. They also switched out their gold color to yellow.
The Minnesota Twins have a new alternate uniform, utilizing their powder blue 1973–1986 road uniform design.
The Pittsburgh Pirates brought back the script "Pittsburgh" from the 1990s on new alternate and road uniforms, along with a gold outlined "P" on their caps.
The Texas Rangers have introduced a new powdered blue jersey along with a powdered blue hat. They also changed the "Texas" wordmark to "Rangers" wordmark on their white jersey. They also revealed a new red hat with the state of Texas on it with "TX."
The Toronto Blue Jays have a new alternate, a modern spin on its 1979–1988 powder blue road jerseys.

Venues

This is the Texas Rangers' first season at Globe Life Field, replacing Globe Life Park in Arlington where they played 26 seasons, from 1994 to 2019. Their first game was July 24 against the Colorado Rockies.
The Miami Marlins converted Marlins Park from a natural grass surface to Shaw Sports B1K artificial turf and the field's fences will be moved in closer.
The Atlanta Braves' SunTrust Park was renamed Truist Park after SunTrust Banks's merger with BB&T Bank into Truist Financial.

Temporary relocation of the Toronto Blue Jays

On July 18, the Canadian federal government denied the Toronto Blue Jays exceptions to the Quarantine Act to play regular season home games at Rogers Centre this season. Although they were allowed to conduct training camp, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Marco Mendicino cited that repeated cross-border travel by players would carry a major risk due to the heightened number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. Mendicino did not rule out the permission being granted for postseason games, depending on the status of the pandemic in the U.S. by then.
On July 20, the Pittsburgh Pirates offered to accommodate the use of PNC Park as a site for Blue Jays home games. However, health officials in Pennsylvania denied permission for this arrangement, citing concerns over additional travel to and from Pittsburgh amid an increase in local cases.
On July 24, the Blue Jays announced that they would play the majority of their home games at Sahlen Field in Buffalo, New York, home of the Jays' AAA affiliate, the Buffalo Bisons. In order to complete preparations for the team in Buffalo, the Blue Jays' first designated home series against the Washington Nationals will be played at Nationals Park in Washington.

Broadcast rights

Television

National

This is the seventh year of the current eight-year deals with Fox, ESPN, and TBS. Fox will televise the MLB at Field of Dreams game on August 13. FS1 will televise games on Tuesday nights and on Saturdays both during the afternoon and night. ESPN will televise games on its flagship telecast Sunday Night Baseball as well as Monday and Wednesday nights. Fox and ESPN Sunday Night Baseball telecasts will be exclusive; all other national telecasts will be subject to local blackout.
TBS will televise both American League Division Series matchups, and the American League Championship Series. ESPN will televise seven of the eight first round series with the assumption that TBS will televise the remaining first round series. FS1 and MLB Network will televise both National League Division Series matchups. Fox and FS1 will televise the National League Championship Series, and the World Series will be on Fox for the 21st straight year.

Local

National

In order to reduce avoidable travel and the amount of personnel on-site for each game, most MLB broadcasters will commentate away games remotely from either their broadcaster's studio, or their home stadium's broadcast booths. MLB safety protocols mandate remote broadcasts for away games on television, but radio broadcasters may be present on-site for away games if they so choose. Some teams will have their commentators on-site for home games only, and call away games from their studio.
Furthermore, the home team's local television rightsholder will serve as the host broadcaster for each game, providing a neutral video feed to media partners, which will add commentary, graphics, and other surrounding coverage for their audience. MLB Network assisted with providing and using existing infrastructure for this arrangement. Audio from Sony Interactive Entertainment's video game franchise will be used as simulated crowd noise for all games, and is being played over the stadiums' audio systems on-site.
Fox announced plans to use augmented reality "virtual fans" in its games, while ESPN is leveraging experience from its remote broadcasts of KBO League games over the suspended pre-season.
The pandemic has also led to changes in broadcast arrangements for several teams:
The following players and managers retired from the start of the 2020 season:
Due to the delayed start of the season caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the following retirement ceremonies have been postponed. They will be rescheduled.
PlayerNo.TeamOriginal DateRef
Larry Walker33Colorado RockiesApril 19
Dave Stewart34Oakland AthleticsMay 23
Roy Halladay34Philadelphia PhilliesMay 29
Jerry Koosman36New York MetsJune 13
Will Clark22San Francisco GiantsJuly 11