In the surest sign yet that an on-time start to the season is in peril, Major League Baseball this weekend proposed to the players union a 154-game regular season with a one-month delay to spring training, according to multiple reports.
The players union is expected to decline the proposal Monday, according to a report from USA Today, but it is unknown whether it will present a counterproposal.
The league’s proposal, first reported by Yahoo Sports, includes full 162-game pay for players, an expanded 14-team postseason, and universal use of the designated hitter. MLB also would keep last season’s experimental rules for seven-inning doubleheaders and beginning extra innings with a runner on second base.
Pitchers and catchers are still scheduled to report to spring training in mid-February. Opening day is scheduled for April 1. The league’s proposal seeks to push the spring report date to March 22 for all players and opening day to April 28. The regular season would end Oct. 10, and the World Series would extend into November as a result, inviting wonder whether another neutral-site postseason might be looming.
Delaying the start of spring training and the regular season would allow more people to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and ostensibly lower infection rates across the country. Earlier this month, Cactus League officials and a handful of Arizona mayors asked Major League Baseball to consider delaying spring training in hopes the infection rate in Arizona could be lower by March.
League owners are in favor of a delayed season to allow more time for vaccinations. Their hope is that with a late April or early May start, governments might allow or teams could enjoy more games with more fans in attendance, bringing in the gate revenue they missed during the 2020 season. Expanded playoffs would also bring more revenue, but the union already rejected an expanded postseason format earlier this winter.
Last week, an Astros spokeswoman confirmed the team is planning to host a limited number of fans at Minute Maid Park at the beginning of the regular season. The team sent another social media push advertising season tickets on Friday. Houston’s scheduled home opener is April 8 against the Oakland A’s.
That schedule could soon be moot. The league’s latest proposal also included a 14-team postseason field — two fewer teams than the 2020 format. After finishing the regular season 29-31, the Astros made the 2020 postseason only as a result of the expansion, which was not agreed upon until hours before opening day.
That scenario provides a fitting backdrop for the current discussions. Player agents and others within the industry were befuddled Sunday about the timing of these discussions. Some players have already begun to travel to either Florida or Arizona and secured housing for the scheduled start of spring training.
While the new proposal says players would receive 100 percent of pay if all 154 scheduled games are played, commissioner Rob Manfred would have an expanded right to stop spring training, the regular season or the postseason under certain conditions. Those would be if government restrictions prevent five or more teams from playing home games even without fans, if government rules restrict travel in the United States, if Manfred determines after consultation with medical experts and the union there is an unreasonable safety risk to players or staff, or if the number of regular major leaguers unavailable because of COVID-19 undermines completive integrity.
The regular season would be compressed to 154 games in 166 days from 162 games in 186 days. Each team would start with 18 scheduled days off, and each team would be allowed up to 12 split doubleheaders.
Negotiations between the two sides will continue and, if precedent holds, may be contentious. The two sides had an ugly public discourse last summer that culminated with Manfred’s implementing a 60-game season.
Animus and distrust remains between both sides, neither of which wants to show its hand with negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement looming after the 2020 season.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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