Blue Jays: Another plan to try and get baseball back this year?

According to a report from CBS Sports yesterday, MLB is working on another plan to try and get the 2020 season to still take place, one way or another.

It’s been a little while since we’ve had much of a concrete update, or even much in the rumour mill about a MLB season in 2020. However, that changed on Monday with a new plan that may be surfacing in the MLB office.

According to reports on CBS Sports from R.J. Anderson, the league is working on a variety of different proposals to try and save the baseball season, including a new, three-location idea. It has been previously reported that the league office had looked at quarantining players in Arizona and Florida, the sites of their spring training leagues, but it sounds like they’re taking a close look at Texas as a viable option as well.

Obviously there would be a lot to sort out, and there are plenty of questions at this stage. The logical assumption would be that the league would send 10 teams to each of the three locations, but it’s also possible that an unbalanced schedule could be considered. Anderson correctly points out that each location has a field with a roof of some kind as well, so controlling scheduling due to weather could certainly be doable.

Just like any other proposal that’s been banded about, we have to wait before we get too excited about the idea of baseball returning in 2020, in any form. The league would have to reach an agreement between the owners and the player’s union, and there are members of the latter that understandably aren’t thrilled with the idea of being separated from their families during a pandemic.

The whole thing is also a moving target for the league office, as circumstances are changing quick in the United States right now, and that could continue for weeks or months because of the volatile situation with public health. Rob Manfred, the MLB Commissioner, referred to the league office’s work as, “we don’t have a plan, we have lots of ideas”, which makes a lot of sense at this stage.

As much as I’m sure everyone would like to see a concrete plan put in place, for now all the league office can really do is work on different scenarios, monitor the situation, and hope for the best. Here’s hoping it all results in a MLB season in 2020 at some point.