Several weeks of counteroffers and posturing gave way to Major League Baseball imposing a 2020 season of 60 games after the Players Association committed to a July 1 report date for Spring Training 2.0 and agreed to health and safety protocols.
“Major League Baseball is thrilled to announce that the 2020 season is on the horizon,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “We have provided the Players Association with a schedule to play 60 games and are excited to provide our great fans with Baseball again soon.”
With Manfred moving to implement a 60-game schedule, teams are slated to face divisional opponents as well as their opposite league’s corresponding geographical division in effort to reduce travel.
As such, the Los Angeles Dodgers will face the Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants; playing each 10 times. The Dodgers’ remaining schedule will consist of matchups against American League West clubs.
MLB is expected to arrange for Interleague play to feature a heavy dose of six games between ‘rivals,’ which would equate to the Dodgers and L.A. Angels playing six games.
While MLB is taking safety into account with setting the schedule and generally keeping teams in regions, the Dodgers — and other NL West clubs — face a bit of a unique scenario in that they will play in three separate time zones (Pacific, Mountain, Central).
It’s par for course in a normal season, but in 2020 it’s another wrinkle to a condensed schedule. The Dodgers nonetheless are widely expected to not only win the NL West for an unprecedented eighth consecutive year, but also reach the World Series a third time in the past four seasons.
Perhaps one of the more intriguing aspects of the Dodgers’ schedule this year will be games with the Houston Astros.
It of course will represent the first time L.A. and Houston play each other since MLB levied a punishment for the Astros’ electronic sign-stealing that was key to their defeating the Dodgers in the 2017 World Series.
A schedule for the 2020 season won’t be officially set until being approved by the MLBPA, which should come this week.
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