Though we’re starting to receive promising news for the 2020 MLB season, these are three hurdles the league will have to overcome when games begin.
Over the last week, baseball fans have been greeted with mostly good news regarding the possibility of there being a 2020 MLB season. Currently, negotiations between players and owners have gotten off to a good start with both sides agreeing on most things except financials.
At the end of the day, it appears that both sides are itching to get back on the field, which is ultimately a good thing. And if within the next week or two, players and owners can come to an agreement, we’re looking at the season kicking off potentially on July 4th.
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However, even if an agreement is struck, MLB still faces some major hurdles when games finally commence. Here they are:
Most states haven’t lifted stay-at-home orders
Though states like Florida and Arizona, homes of the Grapefruit League and Cactus League respectively, have essentially opened up their doors to sports, other states like Los Angeles have extended their stay-at-home orders through July, albeit with the possibility of them being relaxed.
In essence, unless more states begin to relax their social distancing orders, there’s no way teams outside of Florida and Arizona will be able to play in their home stadiums. What’s more, teams like the Tampa Bay Rays, Miami Marlins, and the Arizona Diamondbacks will have a distinct advantage over the rest of the league.
Unless, of course, MLB enforces teams to play in their Spring Training stadiums which are all located in either Florida (Grapefruit) or Arizona (Cactus).
Canada’s 14-day quarantine
Currently, Canada’s government has enforced an emergency order under the Quarantine Act that requires those entering Canada to isolate for 14 days. This poses an issue for the Toronto Blue Jays, MLB’s sole Canadian team.
If baseball’s intention is to have teams play in their home stadiums, there is no way the Jays can host teams in the Rogers Centre. That is of course unless Canada eases those restrictions before the start of the 2020 MLB season – whenever that is.
A solution to this problem would be to require the Blue Jays to play in their Spring Training field in Dunedin, Florida.
Weather-related issues in November
Finally, part of MLB’s proposal is to expand the postseason from 10 teams to 14, which could potentially push the tournament into November. If teams are to play in their home stadiums, this might pose an issue for ballparks located in northern states (e.g. New York, Boston, Toronto, Seattle, Minnesota, Chicago, Detroit, etc.).
I mean, just two years ago, in November of 2018, New York City was paralyzed by a snowstorm. Can baseball really risk this happening on top of what has already frozen the nation to a standstill?
In conclusion, it seems that the only solution to all of these problems would be to allow teams to use their Spring Training stadiums until restrictions are lifted for all states (and Canada) that host MLB teams. Fans won’t be allowed in stadiums anyway, so stadium capacity won’t be a problem.
For now, the expectation is that players and owners should come to an agreement within the next week or two. Then they can begin to focus in more on the hurdles listed here.