MLB looking to have plan in place by end of May
In these unprecedented times, leagues and executives continue to think outside the box and get creative as to what a return to professional sports could look like. Unlike most other major sports leagues in North America that had to halt midway through their seasons, Major League Baseball was never even able to get their 2020 campaign underway due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Monday though, ESPN’s Jeff Passan suggested that the league is looking at the end of May as a logical timeline to have a plan in place as to when play can resume and what the schedule would look like. Passan is quick to note though, that even if a plan cannot be established by the end of May, we could still have a 2020 MLB season.
It was just last week in a letter to league employees and officials that MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred reiterated his desire and belief that the season would commence eventually, but that even he wasn’t sure when that could or would happen.
“While I fully anticipate that baseball will resume this season, it is very difficult to predict with any accuracy the timeline for the resumption of our season,” wrote Manfred.
The letter would then go on to state that he had planned to suspend all contracts and that it was up to the individual teams as to whether players and employees would continue to get paid while the league was halted. The good news Paes notes, is that nearly every team in the league has guaranteed baseball-operations employees full payment until May 31st – a date that could line up with the MLB’s timeline to have a firm plan in place.
If play is to resume this year, the schedule will likely not include very much travel with teams playing all games in one or two states. Arizona has already been bandied about as a potential destination with Governor Doug Ducey already encouraging the prospect of having all thirty teams playing their games in the state. The concept of hub cities definitely seems to be the most logical and realistic at this time, with MLB teams being split into three or four different cities to play their games.
According to CBS Sports, Arizona, Dallas and Tampa Bay have already been discussed as possible host cities but nothing is firm yet. The idea of four or five hub cities has also been looked at as the league continues to explore all possible options to get the season up and running.
The Toronto Blue Jays are the league’s only non-American team and because of potential travel restrictions, they could be forced to move their operations to the United States until restrictions are lifted. It remains to be seen when cross-border travel will resume for non-essential services and it wouldn’t make sense to have the club travel back and forth between Canada and the United States.
Only time will tell what an eventual plan will look like, but it has to be exciting for all baseball fans to see the discussions being had.
