Report: MLB has no concrete plan for Opening Day despite rumors
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Major League Baseball's upcoming season remains in limbo.
Officials from at least one team - the Cleveland Indians - gave players a July 1 date for Opening Day and an approximate June 10 mark for the start of second spring training, but these dates were intended more as targets than as finalized decisions, sources told Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
Former major-league infielder Trevor Plouffe tweeted Tuesday that baseball would indeed be back on those dates, with teams returning to their home ballparks.
Want some good baseball news??
— Trevor Plouffe (@trevorplouffe) May 4, 2020
I just heard from multiple sources that on June 10th, Spring Training 2 will start. July 1st will be Opening Day and all teams will be playing at their home ballparks.
We’ll be discussing it in full on the next @TalkinBaseball_
Instead, the Indians apparently simply wanted players to be ready should the beginning of the season become imminent.
MLB remains confident that some version of a 2020 campaign will take place, and it was recently reported that the league intends to have a concrete plan by the end of May.
The current goal is to open as many home ballparks as possible whenever the season begins, sources told Rosenthal. The biggest roadblock facing MLB and its teams is determining how to safely stage games even without fans in attendance.
Whatever plan the league adopts will need to be flexible and easily adaptable to the evolving situation around the coronavirus pandemic, particularly if there's an uptick in infections once states begin to reopen, Rosenthal adds.