NEW YORK – The seven-entry doubleheaders and second base runners to start the extra entries will return for a second consecutive season under an agreement for 2021 health protocols signed on Monday between Major League Baseball and the players’ association.
The deal did not include last year’s experimental rule to extend the designated hitter to the National League or expand the playoffs. After allowing 16 teams in the postseason last year, instead of 10, the MLB proposed 14 for this year before withdrawing the plan last month.
The expanded deal for last year’s playoffs was not closed until hours before the season’s first move.
There were 78 games of extra entries last year and the longest for entries were two 13-entry contests in Houston, won by the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 29 and Oakland on August 7. All previous seasons since 1901 have had at least one game with 15 entries or more.
45 games were postponed for reasons related to COVID-19 and only two were not compensated, between St. Louis and Detroit. To this end, there were 56 doubles matches, the largest since 76 in 1984. About 12% of the matches were part of doubles matches, the highest percentage since 13.6 in 1978.
The agreement includes more sophisticated contact tracking for COVID-19, which includes the use of technology, and more rules of behavior to comply with the new coronavirus protocols.
Spring training starts on February 17th and the season starts on April 1st. The union last week rejected MLB’s proposal to postpone spring training and Opening Day until April 28, a plan that would have led to a compressed schedule of 154 team games instead of the usual 162
The start of last season was postponed from March 26 to July 23 because of the pandemic, and the schedule for each team was reduced to 60 games.