MLB will reportedly have an expanded postseason this fall.
Just hours before the start of the 2020 regular season, the Major League Baseball Players Association approved an agreement with MLB to expand its postseason this year, according to ESPN's Marly Rivera.
According to the New York Post's Joel Sherman, the expansion will increase the postseason from 10 teams to 16 teams.
Per ESPN, the agreement, which is just for this season, is now subject to ratification by the league's owners.
ESPN's Buster Olney reported earlier Thursday that as part of the 16-team expanded playoff proposal, the No. 1, 2, 3 seeds in each league—the Division winners—would pick their opponents among the other five teams.
Throughout the negotiations this spring that led to the eventual July 23 start date, the league had proposed expanding the postseason field to 16 teams, though the eventual deal called for a standard postseason format in both field size and series length.
The regular season officially gets underway Thursday evening when the defending World Series champion Nationals host the New York Yankees. Dr. Anthony Fauci will throw out the first pitch before the game begins at 7:08 p.m. ET.
Regarding other uncertainty ahead of the season, the Blue Jays are not permitted to play at the Rogers Centre in Toronto due to their frequent travel back and forth from the United States amid the COVID-19 crisis. The franchise explored playing home games at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, but Toronto was denied once again due to the team's frequent travel.
On Thursday, the Orioles gave the Blue Jays permission to hold 2020 home games at Camden Yards in Baltimore, according to the MLB Network's Jon Heyman.
The state of Maryland still needs to approve the Orioles' decision.
MLB will also debut a 'Black Lives Matter' stencil on mounds across the league in its opening week, the Nationals announced on Wednesday.