Phillies Season Could Begin In July Under New MLB Proposal

PHILADELPHIA, PA — A baseball season like none in the history of the sport could get underway this summer.

Major League Baseball owners have approved a plan that would see the league start an abbreviated season around the Fourth of July, according to multiple media outlets. A wide array of health precautions will be in place that will lead to quite a different experience for both players and fans of the sport. Owners began a presentation of the proposal to the MLB players' union on Tuesday, as sources told both ESPN and the Associated Press.

Negotiations, particularly over player salaries, could take some time.

The proposal, as it currently stands, would not allow fans in Citizens Bank Park, or any stadiums around the country, at the start of the season. However, the assumption is that at some point in the season, fans would be able to return, according to reports. The Chinese Professional Baseball League, one of the world's most competitive leagues after the MLB, has provided a model for this, as they began to allow one fan to sit in each row of their stadiums this week, maintaining social distancing.

The proposal calls for an 82 game season, about half the length of a traditional 162-game season. It would not actually reorganize MLB divisions, as has been discussed in that past. Instead, it alters schedules so that teams strictly play opponents in their geographical area, minimizing travel and possibly shifting some travel from plane to bus.

For the Phillies, this could mean that they would continue to play the Washington Nationals and New York Mets with regularity. Other frequent opponents would include the Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Boston Red Sox.

It's not yet clear how much the Phillies would play their other divisional rivals which are outside of the immediate geographic area: the Atlanta Braves and the Miami Marlins.

However, throw that scenario out the window if the Phillies are one of the teams that is unable to gain approval from local and state government to actually play games in their home stadium. In that case, games could be played at the team's spring training complex in Clearwater, Florida. Their schedule, in that scenario, could include more games against the Marlins, Braves, and Tampa Bay Rays, as well as games against any other teams that were "quarantined" to their spring training homes in the Grapefruit League part of Florida.

Very notably, the proposal would increase the number of playoff teams from 10 to 14, making the postseason something of a roller coaster. The designated hitter would be expanded to both leagues, so that pitchers would be socially distanced from hitters almost constantly. It would all get underway with a mini-spring training at some point in June.

One of the chief concerns in the short term is that the players' union will not agree to the terms that the owners have laid out. Because fans will not be in the stadium, game revenues will be solely from television broadcasts for at least a significant portion of the short season. So owners want players to take a pay cut.

Some players are also concerned that the public health aspect of the proposal is being overlooked.

"It feels like we've zoomed past the most important aspect of any MLB restart plan: health protections for players, families, staff, stadium workers and the workforce it would require to resume a season," Washington Nationals All Star closer Sean Doolittle said in a lengthy Twitter thread addressing the situation.

Indeed, the plan requires that consistent testing of players be done prior to games. Players would have to be quarantined and miss games if they tested positive. And, of course, all is contingent on how severe the virus is in a given area.

"The virus will make the decision for us," the nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said in an interview in regards to the 2020 NFL season. This sentiment has been echoed by officials addressing the MLB reopening, as well.

From an on the field perspective, the proposal has its ups and its downs for the Phillies.

The good news is the 14-team playoff format, with seven in each league getting a shot. In the National League, there is more parity than anytime in recent years, meaning that under the regular format of a five team postseason, several competitive clubs would be left in the dust.

So the Phillies have a chance, as a competitive team in probably the best division in baseball. However, their schedule will not do them any favors. If they play chiefly their division rivals, their schedule will be hard enough; if that's expanded that to include geographical neighbors, there are two more good teams in the mix: the Yankees and the Red Sox.

The shortened season could also mean that someone like Spencer Howard, the Phillies top prospect and ace minor league pitcher, could contribute to the team in a more impactful way. He was likely to be on an innings limit this year as his arm develops, but the shorter season could mean the Phillies rotation will have a nice boost.

It's not clear yet how long negotiations with the players' union are expected to last, or when a final decision will be reached.