The Major League Baseball(MLB) season is getting under way here. Opening day is on April 1st, 2021 with the New York Yankees playing the Toronto Blue Jays at 1:05p.m. COVID-19 protocols will be taken place in this upcoming season.

Last season, amid COVID, the MLB implemented many rules, those including double headers will be only seven innings, players will start on second base to begin extra inning play, rosters reduced, and daily COVID tests. There surely will be new protocols to come but as the MLB finally agreed to have a season this year, it will take some time to see what those new protocols will be.

A big team featured last year were the Toronto Blue Jays. Canada did not allow the team to play home games last year, they were forced to play a majority of their games at their opponents ball park. That being said it was basically all road games for them until about half way through the season they found a home stadium to play at within the United States. It is still unclear if they will still not be allowed to play in Canada or will they have their home back. Based off of the situation with the Toronto Raptors, who are not playing home games in Canada, it is looking like another year without a home stadium for the Blue Jays.

There were no fans allowed last year, but teams have already made pre-season agreements with their state that fans would be allowed in certain stadiums. The NBA is currently allowing a small handful of teams to host fans, but must prove that they are COVID free. They are still required to wear masks and social distance, we could see a similar scenario in some MLB games. However with only a 60 game season last year, there was not much focus on bring in fans for a short season. This year that will definitely be the number one question with a full season ahead.

The last big question yet to be answered is, spring training. The MLB is still yet to announce if spring training will take place in Florida. The NBA cut their preseason and forced teams to only do workouts within their stadium, this caused lots of teams with new players and coaches to get off to a slow start, as they had no games against any real teams until the start of the actual season. This could come into affect also for this upcoming MLB season.