Senior MLB Officials 'Near Certain' 2020 Season Will Be Played Despite COVID-19

Senior MLB officials are "near certain" there will be a 2020 season despite the coronavirus pandemic, according to Charles Gasparino of Fox Business.

Gasparino added that "details of the game" are still being debated and league officials are closely watching when New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will reopen businesses and lift the stay-at-home order in New York City, since the New York Yankees and New York Mets will be impacted.

The 2020 MLB regular season had been scheduled to begin in late March, but the league shut down during spring training due to COVID-19 and has yet to announce a plan for starting the season.

MLB is one of the many major professional sports leagues in the United States currently in a holding pattern. It arguably has an advantage over the NBA and NHL, though, in that the NBA and NHL were forced to stop in the middle of their seasons.

Meanwhile, MLB's season never actually started, so it has the ability to hold a shortened season and crown a World Series champion if it is able to receive clearance in a timely manner.

Many potential plans regarding the MLB season have been reported in recent weeks, including the Arizona plan, which would see all 30 MLB teams stay in Arizona with the players and coaches being quarantined in hotels and tested regularly.

The games would be played in Arizona without fans in attendance, but there are some potential pitfalls involved, including the possibility of players having to be away from their families for months.

More recently, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported on a proposal Tuesday that would result in a radical realignment for one year only.

Nightengale reported that MLB officials have become "cautiously optimistic" about starting the season some time between late June and July 2 with each team playing at least 100 games.

As part of the plan, the league would realign into three 10-team divisions with teams only playing against those in their divisions. Also, the games would be played in home parks across the country with no fans present.

Under that scenario, MLB would need states hit hard by COVID-19 such as New York and California to open up in the near future or else teams located in those states would not be able to play in their own ballparks.

It is becoming clear that the 2020 season—should it happen—will be unlike any other in both format and fan attendance. While not ideal, any scenario that results in baseball being played at this point would be a win for the league and its fans.