The 2020 MLB season will be unusual in many ways, one of which being that teams will only play against their own geographic divisions. That means the Oakland A’s will only face opponents from the AL West and NL West, and never see any Central or East teams. Their 60-game schedule will consist of 40 against the AL West (10 vs. each team), and 20 against the NL West (4 vs. each team).
Such an unbalanced scheduled will have an effect on the standings, as each isolated region will add up to different levels of competition. That could matter in the Wild Card races, where a softer schedule can lead to an advantage in raw win-loss totals.