Rumor: MLB season to start July 1st

Trevor Plouffe interrupted our respective home happy hours tonight by quietly dropping this bomb on Twitter. While he doesn’t cite his sources, so it could still just be hearsay, the fact that he has heard it from multiple places is certainly encouraging.

Our old friend Plouffe did not play in the majors last season, and has essentially taken the involuntary retirement, where he just couldn’t get signed. However, he has landed on his feet as a media personality, recently joining the start-up Jomboy Media group (who he had done some work with in the past). I can’t in good faith recommend you click on this link without warning you that the founder, Jomboy, is a huuuuge Yankees fan and it definitely comes through in his content. However, he did do some excellent sleuthing about the whole Astros fiasco.

What could a season that starts in July look like? If the season does, in fact, start July 1st, I could see the MLB going one of two ways. They could either play 81 games for an effective half-season, and then not have to compromise the playoff structure, or could try to get 100 games and hold the playoffs at neutral warm-weather (or indoors) locations in November. While neither of these are probably exactly what it turns out to be (if this rumor is even true), and any scenario probably involves no fans for at least the first couple months, I think I speak for everyone when I say I’m excited for baseball in whatever capacity we get it.

P.S. This is not funny, Phil Hughes