MLB News: Teams Are Telling Players to Prepare For a Return

MLB might be back sooner than we all thought. After reports flew around this week from unconfirmed sources, we now have one much closer to the situation.

Jeff Passan of ESPN is reporting that some MLB teams have already started telling their players to make sure they are ready to go. This comes just a few days after Trevor Plouffe reported that a source told him games would be started by July 1st. Per Passan:

Major League Baseball expects to offer a return-to-play proposal to the MLB Players Association within a week, as teams have begun to encourage players to prepare for a “spring” training that could begin in mid-June and a season that could start in early July, sources familiar with the discussions told ESPN.

The report from Passan suggests that MLB could have answers for teams as soon as this week, as they look to present a new plan. That plan would have to e approved by the Player’s union before proceeding. Passan also noted that players, executives, and agents are all being included in the conversations to be ready. 

General managers and managers from at least a dozen teams have reached out to players to suggest that they ramp up baseball activities, those familiar with the conversations — including executives, players and agents — told ESPN.

If this report is even remotely true, the chances that we start seeing MLB move towards games is suddenly becoming very real. As recently as two weeks ago, there was speculation that we wouldn’t see baseball at all in the United States in 2020. 

Of course, there are plenty of obstacles that remain for MLB to get things going again. The logistics of playing games with limited personnel alone present a huge obstacle. Nevertheless, this is the first sign of light we’ve seen in months. We’re close. 

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