Tracking when the 2020 Major League Baseball season will start

The novel coronavirus has forced numerous leagues to suspend their seasons, and other sports find their initial starts delayed indefinitely. While the NBA and NHL are waiting to finish off their 2019-2020 seasons, Major League Baseball and the WNBA are trying to figure out when they’ll be able to get their 2020 seasons underway.

Major League Baseball suspended spring training in March and postponed the start of the 2020 regular season as the Covid-19 pandemic spread. Initially players remained in Florida and Arizona for an eventual restart, but eventually they were given the opportunity to depart for home. Many players have stayed near spring training sites, but the next steps are still being resolved.

MLB has been working on various plans, with the most talked about having the league return to spring training in mid-June and starting the regular season in early July. MLB came to an initial agreement with the players’ union in March on how things would restart, but now there is expected to be discussion about financial impacts of having no fans in the stands when the season gets underway.

Reports will continue to process as the league and players negotiate steps while trying to figure out health and safety issues.