MLB Officially Locks in Shortened Season

Play ball! Major League Baseball has settled on a plan for a 60-game season that will begin around July 24, according to ESPN.

Following months of back-and-forth negotiations with the players’ union, the league’s owners voted to approve a 60-game schedule for the 2020 season on Monday. The players’ union agreed to the league’s terms on Tuesday night, tweeting: “All remaining issues have been resolved and Players are reporting to training camps.” Camps are set to open July 1.

MLB in March cancelled spring training for this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic. “This action is being taken in the interests of the safety and wellbeing or our players, clubs and our millions of loyal fans,” the league said then in a statement, adding that they will “continue to evaluate ongoing events” going forward and “have been preparing a variety of contingency plans” for the regular season.

MLB at the time joined fellow sports leagues the NBA and the NHL in shutting down operations in light of the outbreak. The NBA suspended its season on March 11 after All-Star player Rudy Gobert tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, and the NHL followed suit a day later.

The NBA earlier this month approved a plan to resume the 2019-20 regular season on July 31, by bringing 22 of 30 teams — excluding those without a realistic shot at the postseason — to the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, where they will play eight regular season games each, followed by a possible play-in tournament for the eighth seed (if necessary) and then the playoffs, which could stretch to Oct. 12 at the latest.

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