Padres News: 2020 season officially begins July 24

The San Diego Padres will officially open their 2020 season on July 24, as MLB and MLBPA have formally agreed on a 60-game season.

After several failed proposals between MLB owners and the MLBPA, the league stepped in last night, formally implementing a 60-game season. However, there were two hurdles left to clear as The Association had to agree to report by July 1 and sign off on health and safety protocols. And this evening, we finally got our wish as the Padres season will officially kick off on July 24.

There have been several proposals with different tidbits, so let’s briefly review what’s going to be implemented as part of the shortened 2020 season.

• Transactions freeze ends Friday, June 26
• Spring Training 2.0 will start on July 1
• Trade deadline with occur on August 31
• National League will implement the DH
• Teams must 60-man player pool names by Sunday, June 28
• Three taxi squad players can be taken on the road
• Season will start with 30-man rosters, reduce to 28 after two weeks, and 26 after four weeks
• Teams can invite all 60 players to big-league spring training or send up to 20 players (not on the 40-man roster) to an alternate site, which is reportedly going to be in Nashville
• Injured list will be 10 days
• Special COVID-19 related injured list with no set number of days
• Players eligible for the postseason must be added to the big-league roster by September 15
• Pitcher/Catchers to report first, then position players 

I’m sure we’ll have much more to discuss on this, but I wanted to get the basic rules out there. Over the next few days, Major League Baseball will be setting the schedule, and we will officially know “When and Where” the Padres will start their season.

And hey, we’re already in first place! How ya feeling, Padres fans?