MLB To Send Plan For Starting Season To MLBPA Soon

Major League Baseball plans to submit a return-to-play proposal to the MLB Players Association sometime within the next week, according to ESPN’s  Jeff Passan. Teams have begun to tell their players to prepare for a ‘spring-training’ sometime in mid-June and the season would start early in July.

The league was scheduled to begin its 2020 season on March 26, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the start of the season has been subsequently pushed back.

There are still numerous obstacles in the way for Major League Baseball to return, outside of getting the approval of owners and players. Arguably the largest obstacle for a return is for the MLB to get the support of the federal government and health officials. Another hurdle in the way of Major League Baseball is that the league would have to reconfigure its schedule because the likelihood that teams will play a full 162 game schedule as they normally would is slim. The league has suggested that teams play a modified 80-100 game season or a mega tournament that would ultimately crown a champion.

There has also been some concern by players about the season starting. Boston Red Sox’s pitcher Collin McHugh is one of these players who is skeptical about the season starting. “I’m a husband, I’m a father. There are many guys in the league with underlying conditions. With preexisting conditions, like diabetes and heart arrhythmias. You look at our coaching staffs, there’s tons of guys over 65,” said McHugh. “Umpires, there’s a lot of guys over 65. When you’re talking about the risk factors here, there are going to be some guys who sincerely have to weigh the risks of what it’s going to take to come back versus staying at home. We’re in a situation right now where you can’t make this mandatory. You can’t tell a guy you have to come play or else your roster spot is not going to be here when you come back. You can’t tell a guy to risk his life and the life of his family and the lives of anyone he chooses to be around to come play this game. There’s probably going to have to be some waivers signed and whatever else you need to have done to make guys feel comfortable coming back.”

Obviously, not all players are going to share McHugh’s feelings, but he does bring up an interesting point. Given the uncertainty of the times we live in, to take players away from their families for possibly an extended time will be challenging for some players.