Everything You Need to Know for the 2020 MLB Season

It's time for baseball. Seriously. It's happening.

Over and over again, you're going to hear how this MLB season is unlike any other.

You'll read it in headlines, hear about it on television and experience it every day you follow the 2020 season. But unfortunately the baseball landscape—not to mention the world landscape—is significantly different than it was 266 days ago when the Nationals beat the Astros in Game 7 of the World Series. 

We're here to catch you up on all the changes, on and off the field, that will shape the way you interact with Major League Baseball in 2020. Here's what you need to know:

• Let's start on the field. The biggest news there is only hours old, with the Dodgers signing MVP outfielder Mookie Betts to the richest extension in MLB history. Tom Verducci explains why L.A. went all-in on Betts, especially in the wake of missing out on right-hander Gerrit Cole, who signed for a record $324 million over nine years with the Yankees. Stephanie Apstein views the Betts deal through the lens of the Red Sox, who cried poor and traded a franchise icon for pennies on the dollar.

Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

• Speaking of news on the field, the Blue Jays are still looking for one to play on. Michael Rosenberg explains why the club's fiasco embodies MLB's chaotic return plan.

• In the mood for something more light and digestible? We've got plenty of predictions. SI's MLB staff predicted this year's World Series matchup (hello, Rays and Dodgers) and winner, in addition to all 10 playoff teams. Could the Padres finally reach October? I think so. If you want to focus on the stars, SI's baseball experts made their MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year picks, an annual exercise to remind everyone how good Mike Trout is.

• Still wondering about that Astros thing? With the trash cans? Yeah. Here's everything you need to know about that, and how the repercussions are still being felt. Oh, yeah, the Red Sox were also found guilty for sign stealing.

• You've got questions. We've got questions. Everyone has questions. Matt Martell highlights one big question facing every team as we enter this uncertain season. We also asked our MLB staff to answer which team will be the worst in 2020, and which will be the best (spoiler: it's the Dodgers).

• Looking at the best and worst teams naturally aligns with Emma Baccellieri's rankings of which teams are the most (and least!) watchable around the game.

• Part of what makes a team watchable (or not) is their competition, which is entirely based on the weird and wacky schedules of each team in 2020. Tom Verducci details the winners and losers of the new schedule.

• Let's take a step back and remember how we got here. No, don't step that far back. We're just talking baseball. How did we even end up with a season this year? Weren't some millionaires and billionaires fighting at some point? Ah, yes. Tom Verducci reminds us that even with an end result that gives us baseball, everyone really loses in a 60-game season that could have been so much more. You'd think a bunch of smart lawyers would be able to agree on the wording of an agreement they came to in March, but that proved to be the root of the war each side waged for months. Nevertheless, SI's MLB staff wondered aloud what a 60-game season really means.

Kohjiro Kinno/Sports Illustrated

• At least that gave us the very cool and trendy #WhenAndWhere hashtag for players to use on social media. Long may it live. (Emma Baccellieri explained just how much the hashtag galvanized players and pushed their cause forward.)

• Want some good reads as baseball gets cranking again? Check out a feature or five from Tom Verducci. This week he dove in on Brewers skipper Craig Counsell, dubbed the Mad Chef of Milwaukee. For our (first) MLB Preview, he extensively documented the return of two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani. Learn more about the Rays and their knack for finding talent where others don't, specifically on the mound. Or discover a reminder that baseball has been here before with a shortened season. It led to the chaos of 1981.

• If you have some serious time, consider spending a weekend with Tom Verducci's 30,000-word quarantine masterpiece, Letters From the Hub, episodically chronicling the 1918 pandemic through the eyes of Red Sox beat writer for the Boston Globe, Eddie Martin. There are plenty of Babe Ruth stories in there to keep you entertained.

• In the non-Verducci division, we have Stephanie Apstein telling Daniel Bard's remarkable tale of overcoming the yips and landing on an MLB roster for the first time since 2013. Emma Baccellieri slipped into a bookstore with Nationals closer Sean Doolittle this past winter, before the world turned upside down. Matt Martell examined the lost season of Little League due to COVID-19.

• I'll leave you with one of my favorite stories about one of my favorite players I never saw perform: Tom Verducci on Sandy Koufax, The Left Arm of God.