Indians Reportedly Commit to Play Employees Through June 30 amid COVID-19

The Cleveland Indians will continue paying a majority of their full-time employees through June 30 while the COVID-19 epidemic keeps the 2020 MLB season in a holding pattern, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel.

Part-time employees and team interns have been furloughed, however, per Passan and McDaniel.

Forty senior-level employees accepted pay cuts to allow for their other full-time coworkers to remain salaried for the time being.

The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal reported April 19 that MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred was suspending Uniform Employee Contracts, which allowed teams to place employees on furlough or cut their pay beginning May 1.

More than half of the league has already committed to paying members of the baseball operations department for the month of May.

The status of the current season remains murky.

During a conference call, Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo believes fans will get to see an Opening Day in 2020.

"I'm optimistic, as is the commissioner, that we'll have baseball in 2020," he said, per the Associated Press. "I'm upbeat about that. The most important thing is to do it in the right way and the safest manner we can. But I believe that we will have baseball."

Still, there's no firm plan to outline when or how baseball will be back.

Earlier this month, Passan shared the details of a proposal to have games in Phoenix and the surrounding areas while sequestering players at hotels and keeping them under close watch.

R.J. Anderson of CBSSports.com reported another idea would split teams among designated sites in Arizona, Florida and Texas.