Overseas play scheduled

NEW YORK — Major League Baseball plans to start the 2019 and 2020 seasons in Asia and play regular-season games in England in June of both years.

The collective bargaining agreement reached in November was finalized and sent to the clubs Friday, and contains a schedule for international play through 2021 along with how much extra money each player will receive for making the trips.

“Playing major league games abroad is critically important to growing the game internationally, and we are very pleased that the parties were able to agree on a very comprehensive international play plan in bargaining,” MLB Chief Legal Officer Dan Halem said in an email to The Associated Press.

The agreement calls for the season opener to be played in Asia in 2018 and 2020 and specifies Japan for 2019. However, plans have not progressed for a 2018 Asian opener and those games are now unlikely, according to a baseball official familiar with the planning. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because no statement was authorized.

A two-game series between Cleveland and Minnesota in San Juan, Puerto Rico, already has been announced for next April 17-18, and the agreement calls for an additional series in Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic in May 2020.

Series in Mexico are planned for each April from 2018-21 and for May 2019 and 2021.

London’s Olympic Stadium, West Ham’s Premier League home, has been looked at as a possible venue for the games in Britain, and the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are the most likely teams for 2019.

Baseball players will receive an extra $60,000 each for regular-season trips to Asia or England, and an additional $15,000 for trips to Mexico, Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic. Each event can be one, two or three games.

— Democrat-Gazette press services