Pittsburgh Pirates News: MLB Owners Approve a Proposal for the 2020 Season

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Major League Baseball and the Pittsburgh Pirates are one step closer to returning from the coronavrius pandemic shutdown after the events that took place on Monday

On Monday, MLB owners voted on a proposal for starting up the 2020 season. As everyone knows, the Pittsburgh Pirates and all of baseball has been at a stand still since March due to the coronavirus pandemic. After the owners approved the proposal, we are now one step closer to baseball returning.

Next up in the process is the owners presenting the proposal to the MLB Players Association. This will happen on Tuesday. If the MLBPA approves the proposal as well, then we could get a planned start date for what is being called ‘Spring Training 2.0,’ as well as Opening Day. As of now, it is believed those dates would be some time in early June, and then around July 1.

Some of the details of the approved proposal have leaked to the public. According to Jon Heyman of the MLB Network, teams would play an 82 game schedule and would play at their home stadiums. This is notable as it had been previously reported that baseball was hoping for a 100 game season with games potentially being played in Florida and Arizona.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post added that in this proposal the postseason would still be played in October. This is due to fears of a second wave of the coronavirus in the colder months that would potentially cause another shutdown, as well as trying to avoid clashing with other sports TV rights in November.

Sherman also added that rosters would grow to 30 players, including a 20-man taxi squad, and that the postseason would grow from 10 to 14 teams. A universal DH is also part of the proposal.

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While the MLBPA still needs to approve the proposal, we are now one step closer to baseball returning. There are some hurdles for the MLBPA to approve such as concerns over player safety/health and how revenue sharing will work between teams and players, but the optimism that there will be a 2020 MLB season continues to grow by the day.