Earlier starts on weeknights, Red Sox, Rays, Orioles highlight Cubs’ 2020 home schedule

The Rays will return to Wrigley Field next July for the second time since Joe Maddon’s final season managing them in 2014.

Whether he’ll be there as the Cubs’ manager to greet them is only one of the many subplots of the 2020 schedule released Monday.

What will the Cubs look like when the Red Sox visit Wrigley Field next June in president Theo Epstein’s fourth reunion with them since leaving Boston for Chicago after the 2011 season?

And can the Cubs draw a few more families with school-aged kids during the school-year portion of the schedule by moving up start times of weeknight games 25 minutes to 6:40 p.m.? That’s the new start time for weeknight games next season before Memorial Day and after Labor Day.

The Cubs will open their 2020 schedule with a series against the Brewers in Milwaukee before busing home for their home opener March 30 against the Pirates.

The Cubs opened their 2018 and 2019 schedules with lengthy road trips.

The June portion of the schedule is packed with storylines, with the Cubs traveling to London to play a two-game series against the Cardinals on June 13-14, hosting the Red Sox on June 19-21, then traveling to New York for a series against the Yankees on June 26-28.

The Cubs also have two two-game series against former bench coach Brandon Hyde’s Orioles — in Baltimore in April and at Wrigley Field in June.

The Cubs’ interleague schedule also features a trip to Toronto (Aug. 14-16) and the annual pair of crosstown series against the White Sox (July 7-8 on the South Side and July 20-21 at Wrigley Field).