Report: Even If It's Just 50 Games, MLB Players Will Report and Play a Shortened Slate in 2020

While the owners and players union continue to debate about how long the already shortened 2020 season would be in Major League Baseball, a report Friday stated that no matter the length, there will be a season even if only 50 games, and players will stay unified in the fight to try and get a longer slate of games.

The NBA has voted to continue their season starting at the end of July. The NHL’s top brass seems on the same page to getting back to games. The NFL has yet to miss a beat for the most part of important dates due to covid-19.

Major League Baseball and a 2020 season? It’s still anyone’s guess when or if it will happen.

The owners want a shortened 50-game schedule that will include expanded playoffs both this year and next.

Players want a LOT more games, a reported 114, and they don’t have a problem playing ball well into the fall and even winter months when you would need a winter parka to be comfortable at Progressive Field.

While it seems the two sides are completely on opposite ends, an ending to the struggle of starting a season sounds like it might finally be coming to a close, and that a season will indeed happen.

That report comes from SNY.tv’s Andy Martino, who Friday stated that even if it’s 50 games, players are going to report to spring training and games are going to commence at some point in July.

Martino says that he’s spoken to sources that say that the owners may make another fiscal offer to the players to try and get them on the field, and that players “really do appear ready to stand on principle on receiving full prorated salaries.”

From all indications, the players and their union seem very unified when it comes to making sure they get what they want, so it will be interesting to see who may budge in the end to make a 2020 season actually come to fruition.

Martino says that a season could start as soon as today if owners agree to a full prorated pay at a higher number of games for the players, likely somewhere in the range of 70 to 80 games.

Even if the longer than 50-game season that owners want is not completely agreed upon, Martino says that players will report, and owners being greedy in not paying for more games would “lead to a grievance from the players and backlash from fans.”

Players' Association executive director Tony Clark put out a statement Thursday, "The concessions being sought are in addition to billions in player salary reductions that have already been agreed upon."

Now with owners trying to change the terms of the agreement, the stalemate stays in place for the time being – but make no mistake – if you read the way Martino lays it out, we will have Major League Baseball in 2020.