By Ty Anderson, 985TheSportsHub.com
MLB has developed their plan to finally start their 2020 season.
The main parts of the plan are pretty much known by now: MLB wants to move with ahead an 80-game season beginning in July (with no minor-league system), playing in home ballparks with or without fans, and an expanded postseason format. But there’s another tweak we can add to the league’s plan for 2020 courtesy of the New York Post’s Joel Sherman: a universal designated hitter.
“The gist of the plan emerged over the weekend and I can add a wrinkle — I heard that a DH will be used in both leagues, in part to protect pitchers who will have to ramp up to pitch in a shortened second spring,” Sherman wrote.
The implementation of the universal DH would likely go beyond just managing pitchers getting back to work in a delayed-and-shortened season, as there’s a belief that this 80-game schedule will see baseball’s 30 teams divided into three, geographical-based divisions. That would, for example, mean that the Red Sox and Mets would be in the same division. While not unheard of considering the existence of interleague play, it would almost be strange to have these teams be in the same division but playing with two different sets of rules.
This wouldn’t change things for the Red Sox, who already play in the American League and boast one of the best designated hitters in baseball with J.D. Martinez, but it would add an interesting dynamic to some of those National League teams who are used to managing a different kind of game without the benefit of a designated hitter.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is scheduled to hold a conference call with reps from all 30 teams on Monday.