It’s a huge day, folks. We’ve been reporting a lot on the ongoing insanity that are the negotiations to start the MLB season amid the pandemic, but last night the league and players finally came to an agreement.
The Major League Baseball Players Association has agreed to report to training camps by July 1 and play a 60-game season, sources tell ESPN, but deal is not finalized yet.
One last health-and-safety hurdle to get over and Major League Baseball will be back a week from tomorrow.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 23, 2020
No funny business this time, this is it. What sorts of things are included in this new agreement, you may ask?
- The league is finally testing out a universal DH, something that had divided fanbases for a long time but makes a lot of sense given the current state of the game. Unfortunately this means we likely won’t be seeing beautiful clips like Bartolo Colon mashing dingers, but at least these dudes won’t be getting hurt as much.
- Another change that’s a long time coming, extra innings will start with a man on second base. Hopefully we still get a couple 17 inning attrition wars, but now fans on the east coast will be able to go to bed at a reasonable time.
- A 60 game season will be played. While it’s not much, it’s certainly better than nothing.
- The players will get full prorated salaries, which is something we’ve advocated for. If they’re already playing in a pandemic, give them what they should be making anyways.
Two words: Thank. God.
Of course, nothing good can happen without some caveats, and within an hour of the news being broken that we had a season, 3 Rockies players tested positive for the virus.
Charlie Blackmon and two other #Rockies test positive for coronavirus after workouts at Coors Field, #MLB sources say https://t.co/3dX09rhwVp
— Kyle Newman (@KyleNewmanDP) June 24, 2020
It will certainly be interesting to see how this all plays out and how many players will stay healthy. Everything seemingly good that happens in 2020 comes with a big fat asterisk, but there’s hope!