The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Deal reached; baseball plans short season
Players say they will report July 1 after safety protocols are finalized.
Major League Baseball, players have reached a deal on health and safety protocols, plan to start short season in July.
MLB and the Players Association reached agreement on health and safety protocols Tuesday night and set a July 1 report date for the rebooted spring training.
Commissioner Rob Manfred plans to implement a 60-game season after owners and the MLBPA couldn’t agree on an overall return-to-play framework.
While it’s a last-resort decision, it does revive baseball for 2020 (COVID-19 permitting). The players were given a deadline of 5 p.m. Tuesday to answer two questions for the league: Can players report to camps July 1 and will the MLBPA sign off on the operating manual’s health and safety protocols?
Hours after he players reportedly agreed to the July 1 report date, the official word came: “All remaining issues have been resolved and Players are reporting to training camps,” the union tweeted Tuesday night, according to ESPN.
The 60-game, two-month sprint that could allow a lesser team to ride a hot streak into the playoffs.
“There are going to be sur
prises, that I can guarantee you,” Braves Hall of Fame pitcher and TV broadcaster John Smoltz said Tuesday on a conference call for an upcoming celebrity golf tournament. “And those surprises might be refreshing in a sense that you didn’t see that coming three months ago.”
From the Braves’ on-field perspective, their pennant bid is back on. They won’t have to worry about Marcell Ozuna and Cole Hamels becoming free agents without ever playing a game for the team either. Instead, they can shift their focus on a season that might be their best chance to win it all in two decades.
Outside the Dodgers — who might have avoided a twisted fate of losing former MVP Mookie Betts without ever seeing him in blue — the Braves have a strong case as the most talented team in the National League.
A 2020 season means the Braves, their fans and the sport itself didn’t lose a valuable year of the young Ronald Acuna-Ozzie Albies duo, prime Freddie Freeman and another potential growing campaign for Mike Soroka and Max Fried.
It means baseball won’t go 18 long months without playing, though the league’s and union’s failure to reach an agreement further tarnished their relations ahead of the collective bargaining agreement’s December 2021 expiration date.
But for now, the focus will soon shift back to on-field dynamics that’ll make for the most unique season in MLB history.
Rejecting the owners’ offer was a calculated gamble by the players, who turned down more money upfront for the chance to claim a lot more — perhaps $1 billion — through a grievance accusing the owners of bad-faith negotiating. The rejection meant that other proposed innovations would be shelved, too, like in-game broadcast enhancements and advertising on players’ uniforms.
The universal designated hitter will be retained as part of a 2020 rules package the sides must still discuss. Teams will also start extra innings with a runner on second base to spark offense and allow games to finish quicker.
The schedule will be limited to divisional play, plus interleague games with teams in the corresponding geographic division. So the Yankees, for example, will play their American League East rivals Baltimore, Boston, Tampa Bay and Toronto, but also the National League East teams: Braves, Miami, the New York Mets, Philadelphia and Washington.
Everything must happen quickly now as baseball dashes to the World Series while trying desperately to wall itself off from the coronavirus. That is the threat looming over players.
As Brewers pitcher Brett Anderson put it in a tweet Monday night: “What happens when we all get it?” For all of the league’s careful planning, that is the question it cannot answer.