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The news coming out of professional baseball amid the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be rather depressing. It would seem that the 2020 minor league season will be canceled. The word is that MLB will have expanded rosters and developmental leagues playing out of teams’ spring training facilities.
Story: https://t.co/poyXPMAhgc
— Joe (@JoeDoyleMiLB) April 29, 2020
With each team having 275 players or more under contract throughout their major and minor league teams, there are still more questions left to answer for players that will not be a part of Major League rosters even if placed on expanded rosters. Nonetheless it looks as if this is the direction the league is going.
In the article attached to the Tweet above, Joe Doyle goes on to write that his agent sources expect players to report in the next few weeks. The expectation is that baseball will start sometime in June. Players will be asked to return to their organization’s spring training facilities. It has yet to be determined which players will be involved in the developmental leagues, or how things will be constructed.
So it looks like the idea is for baseball to be back soon. Of course the coronavirus might have more to say about things before we get there, but it is good to see a hopeful plan moving forward.
UPDATE:
Minor League Baseball has denied this report:
Major League Baseball has not canceled the Minor League Baseball season, per a league spokesman.
— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) April 29, 2020
But that doesn't necessarily make Minor League Baseball any more likely to happen this year:
Whether the league has officially decided to forego the 2020 minor league season or not is fairly immaterial at this point, imo. The season is unlikely to happen for a variety of reasons, all of which are pretty good.
— Crag Rangoon (@cdgoldstein) April 29, 2020