MLB 2020 Season: 3 Changes If Baseball Is Played This Year Include Playoffs, Fewer Games, No DH

If there is baseball this year, the league will look much different. A 2020 MLB season could feature a truncated schedule, a new playoff format and at least one significant rule change.

It’s been well-established for some time that a typical 162-game schedule was off the table. Opening Day has already been delayed for close to three months. The owners appear set on ending the season before November out of fear of a second wave of the coronavirus.

The owners rejected both a 114-game and an 89-game proposal by the union, making it clear that they don’t want to pay players full prorated salaries for even half a normal season. According to multiple reports, there appears to be some optimism regarding the league’s latest counteroffer, which features a 60-game scheduled to be played over the course of 70 days.

The players are still holding out for a longer schedule. The two sides could land somewhere between 65 and 70 games. That would be far shorter than the strike-shortened 1981 season, which saw some teams play as few as 103 games because of a two-month break.

The 2020 season would certainly feature fewer regular-season games than usual, but it could have more playoff games. Commissioner Rob Manfred and MLBPA head Tony Clark discussed the framework of an agreement Tuesday—the MLBPA insists that no deal has been reached—that included an expanded postseason.

The framework of the deal between Manfred and union chief Clark included: 60 games at 100% full prorated pay, waiver of grievances, 16-team expanded playoffs for 2 years, universal DH, more. Owner sources say it was agreed to pending constituency approval, meaning owners, players
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 18, 2020

Early word is players don’t love the 60 games and some are even calling it a proposal not the agreement owners see it as. Owners view it as an agreed-to deal with players’ option being to turn it down, whereupon they could get a 50-game mandated season as allowed by March 26 deal
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 18, 2020

The new format reportedly features a 16-team playoff. Only 10 teams make the postseason under the current rules, and that number is cut down to eight after the single-game elimination American League and National League wild-card round.

All of this could happen with the implementation of the universal designated hitter. The union has tried to add the DH to the NL in past collective-bargaining negotiations, and the owners are reportedly ready to eliminate pitchers from the lineup for the next two seasons.

The MLB season could potentially begin sometime in mid-July, though the owners and players are running out of time to reach an agreement.