Baseball is finally coming back on the schedule, after an announcement was made earlier this evening, that the MLB and MLBPA came to an official agreement. It’s crazy to think that, after all that consternation and controversy, baseball will still make it out of the COVID starting gate, ahead of the NBA, NHL and NFL
But not only did we find out that the Minnesota Twins will indeed be returning to our televisions before July is through, but we also know who their competition will be.
Plan is for teams to play 40 games in division and 20 games interleague with their geographic counterpart (East vs. East, etc.) #MLB
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 24, 2020
#MNTwins schedule consists of:
— Ted (@tlschwerz) June 24, 2020
10 vs #WhiteSox
10 vs #Tigers
10 vs #Indians
10 vs #KCRoyals
4 vs #Cubs
4 vs #Brewers
4 vs #STLCards
4 vs #Pirates
4 vs #Reds
Staying Central
In order to keep teams from traveling more than necessary, the MLB and MLBPA have come up with a schedule that will keep teams as local as possible, throughout the season. Each team will play 40 games inside of their division and 20 games vs their National League direct counterpart. In the Minnesota Twins’ case, that means the NL Central.
This makes a ton of sense for health reasons… and it should be fun! Obviously, we are playing just over 1/3 of a full season so the race is going to be HOT, directly out of the gate. Most of that shortened season will be played against teams that are fighting for the same division playoff spot the Twins are. Because negotiations fell through, there won’t be an expanded playoff either. It can’t really get a more exciting regular season for MLB baseball, than this.
Who better to have as an inter-league partner, than the NL Central? You get a couple of cake-walk teams like the Reds and Pirates… but you also get the historic side of that division with games against the Cubs and Cardinals.
Series’ with some of these teams rarely, happen. The Twins and Cubs have only played five series against each other since 2000, even though we are right next door to each other and we play on the south side of Chicago multiple times throughout each summer.
Wait… does this mean we get Cubs vs Twins a year early?! If that’s the case, OPEN TARGET FIELD! https://t.co/mFqMDf6wC9
— Dubs (@MikeDubsRadio) June 24, 2020
Hell yes! Let’s play some baseball!
Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan