The season concludes on October 3, with 12 divisional games.
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The entire season schedule follows the MLB Players Association’s refusal of a proposed agreement to move opening day to April 28 and reduce eight games from each team’s schedule.
The suggestion emerged when officials from the Cactus League and Arizona municipalities asked the league to postpone spring training when 15 teams visit the area, owing to COVID-19 concerns. The players will report to spring training exercises the following week.
Last year’s MLB season was cut short because of the epidemic, which pushed Opening day back to July 23.
While there has been a modest decrease in new coronavirus infections and hospitalizations in the United States in recent days, both remain high. On Sunday, the number of unique daily COVID-19 cases fell below 100,000 for the first time since October. According to The COVID Tracking Project, almost 77,000 individuals are now hospitalized with the illness, and hundreds die every day.
According to the CDC, more contagious COVID-19 variants are spreading throughout the United States, with 932 cases first discovered in the United Kingdom identified across 34 states and nine cases of the strain first reported in South Africa confirmed across three states.
Things are getting back to normal (mostly).
Last year, the regular season began in late July, clubs played only 60 games, and long-distance travel was eliminated. Now it’s back to the usual 162 games against a variety of opponents. After a relatively barren season, every team admits at least some supporters inside its stadium straight away. The most frequent is 20-30% of capacity, but the Texas Rangers allow a sell-out crowd of 40,518 for their home opener against Toronto on April 5.
The Blue Jays will allow 1,275 spectators (15% of capacity) at their spring-training facility in Dunedin, Fla., where they will play their home games for the foreseeable future. The Blue Jays might return to Toronto if Canada’s travel restrictions loosen. If not, they may migrate to Buffalo in a few months when the weather in Florida becomes too hot and humid.
The postseason format is still much relevant. It will most likely revert to the pre-2020 format, in which five clubs qualify in each league — the three-division champion plus two wild cards who compete in a one-game playoff to determine who joins them.
MLB is still trying to agree with the players’ union for a larger postseason, maybe as large as last year’s 16-team field, but time is running short.
After one year, the universal designated hitter will be gone (for the time being), forcing pitchers to bat in National League venues. However, other 2020 rule changes remain: teams begin extra innings with a runner on second base, pitchers must face a minimum of three batters or throw until the conclusion of the half-inning, and doubleheaders will include seven-inning games.
The Dodgers are still the best.
Now that their agonizing title wait is over, we can unequivocally proclaim them to be the finest club in baseball right now. L.A. has won eight straight N.L. West championships, three of the previous four N.L. pennants, and, of course, the World Series last year, when they defeated Tampa Bay to break a 32-year drought. In 2020, the Dodgers won 71.7 percent of their regular-season games, one of the greatest percentages in franchise history.
Even frightening for the rest of baseball, the Dodgers appear determined to win back-to-back titles for the first time in team history. They paid Trevor Bauer $102 million over three years, adding the reigning NL Cy Young champion to a strong pitching rotation that included a hall-of-fame star in Clayton Kershaw. L.A.’s batting lineup is also fearsome: outfielders Mookie Betts and Cody Bellinger are recent league MVPs. Shortstop Corey Seager is a danger to join them after earning World Series MVP quality hitters flank them up the order.
When is MLB Opening Day 2021?
Date: Thursday, April 1
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