MLB Players and Owners Finally Get It Together to Craft a 60-Game Season Starting July 24-26
It appears the Oakland Athletics and Major League Baseball will have a season after all.
Tuesday afternoon saw the players and owners end weeks of ill-will talks by striking a deal for a 60-game season that will begin the weekend of July 24-26 following a spring training that will begin on July 1, a week from tomorrow.
As of 4 p.m. (PT) the deal hadn’t been finalized as the representatives of the owners and players hashed out health and safety protocols that both sides hope will keep the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus to a minimum.
However, indications are that both sides believe getting the finer points of the health and safety issues finalized won’t stand in the way of a latest start to the baseball season ever.
As it stands now, MLB will be the first of the four North American team sports to get back to playing games after having the coronavirus delay. The NBA is scheduled for a July 31 resumption and the NHL, which has a July 10 start for the resumption of training, hasn’t set a date. As for the NFL, the regularly scheduled preseason as an Aug. 6 starting date.
To get baseball back the Major League Baseball Players Association gave up games (they wanted 114, the owners wanted 50), salary forgiveness (worth $33 million) and playoff money (a pool worth $25 million). What the players got was retaining the right to be able to file a grievance against the owners.
The players likely will contend in court that the owners didn’t maximize the number of games that could be played, which is important to the players, because they are being paid for this season on the number of games played.
The A’s will be expected to gather again for the first time since the season was put on hold March 12, a space of 89 days, for what is being dubbed Spring Training II, although this will be the first spring training held in the summer.
For the spring session, teams will put together a list of 60 players in the organization eligible to play, including a 40-man roster and 20 non-roster players. The season will start with a 30-man roster, with the others relegated to a taxi squad. After 15 days, the roster will be gut 2o 28 players and after 29 days the roster will be at 26. A trade deadline of Aug. 31 has been established.
There will be no fans at games in Oakland, at least to start the season. However, teams in states other than California may be able to have fans on hand.
The A’s have reached out to the Stockton Ports to have Stockton, 70 miles east of Oakland, be the home base for the taxi squad. With no minor league seasons scheduled, those taxi squad members players will be needed as replacements in case of injuries or roster openings that might come in a trade.
During the time baseball has been shut down, three members of the A’s who were battling injuries in March are now healthy and should be good to go. Stephen Piscotty will be back in right fielder, A.J. Puk is expected to be in the rotation and Daniel Mengden is healthy enough to compete for a spot on the pitching staff.
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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