San Diego Padres: MLB finalizing proposal for July start

Per reports, Major League Baseball is finalizing a proposal that would have the San Diego Padres season begin in early July.

We are getting ever closer to having San Diego Padres baseball returning. According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, Major League Baseball is finalizing a proposal that would have a July start for the 2020 season.

The proposal will be presented to all MLB team owners on Monday, and if no objections are heard, the proposal will be passed on to the players’ union for review. This is, obviously, huge news for baseball fans as the league has been left in limbo after the coronavirus pandemic prematurely ended spring training.

Per Rosenthal, even if the MLBPA signs off on the proposal, the plan would remain subject to medical experts with the hope that testing would be regularly available to ensure the safest conditions are met.

Several notions were tossed around, but it appears that under this proposal, MLB divisions would be regionalized. This means that the NL West would play within the division as well as the AL West in what figures to be an 80-game season.

The good news in this is that teams would play in their home ballparks. The caveat is the playoff format would temporarily be expanded from five to seven teams in each league. And similar to other leagues that have resumed play, the MLB season would begin without fans, and players are reportedly being asked to take a temporary pay cut to accommodate the loss of revenue.

The salary is likely to be a point of contention between the league and the MLBPA, but I like to believe that most players just want some form of a season in 2020.

We’ll see what the owners have to say on Monday night, and if approved, the proposal will be presented to the MLBPA on Tuesday.