Owners To Discuss MLB's Latest Plan For 2020 Season: A Season Of Roughly 80 Games Beginning In Early July, With Expanded Playoffs

UPDATED: "MLB owners approved Monday a proposal set to be delivered to the Players Association on Tuesday that in the most optimistic scenario would begin spring training in about a month and start the season the first week of July."

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MLB owners will hold a conference call today to discuss the latest plan for a shortened 2020 season. If the plan is approved, it will be presented to the players' union on Tuesday.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic offered "a rough outline of some of what the league would like to do":

• A regular season beginning in early July and consisting of approximately 80 games. ...

The schedule would be regionalized: Teams would face opponents only from their own division and the same geographic division in the opposite league. An NL East club, for example, would face teams only from the NL East and AL East.

A 78-game schedule might look like this: Four three-game series against each division opponent and two three-game series against each non-division opponent.

• Teams would open in as many home parks as possible, with even New York — the major-league city hardest hit by the coronavirus — potentially in play by early July.

Toronto also might open by then, though nonessential travel between the U.S. and Canada is restricted through at least May 21 and all travelers to Canada are subject to a mandatory 14-day quarantine.

Teams unable to open in their cities temporarily would relocate, either to their spring training sites or major-league parks in other parts of the country. ...

• Expanded playoffs similar to the idea first reported by the New York Post in February, with an increase from five to seven teams in each league. ...

• Because games, at least initially, will be played without fans, the players would be asked to accept a further reduction in pay, most likely by agreeing to a set percentage of revenues for this season only. ...

The salary issue remains a source of friction. If the owners say it is not economically feasible to play games without fans, the union almost certainly would ask to see financial proof. The teams do not provide the players with full access to their books. ...

An expanded roster of as many as 45 to 50 players is expected. The parties also would need to determine medical protocols — for instance, how they would react if a player becomes infected with the virus.