With season on hold because of COVID-19 pandemic, MLB is considering radical changes
At this point, no one can say when the Major League Baseball season might begin.
It was scheduled to start last week and the Royals’ home opener was supposed to take place this Thursday. Because of the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, the chances of playing a traditional 162-game season with no scheduled doubleheaders and a full playoff schedule look slim.
But some around baseball are throwing around creative ideas on how to make the season as full as possible, including a World Series being played at Christmas.
To play as many games as possible, Major League Baseball could take a page from the minor leagues (and high schools) should it decide to schedule doubleheaders.
“I’ve even heard that there might be talk of being creative,” Rockies manager Bud Black said on MLB Network Radio, “and making doubleheaders two seven-inning games.”
That may raise the ire of baseball traditionalists, but at this point there is nothing conventional about the 2020 season.
“This year is a unique circumstance — there’s a lot of ideas on the table and we really are open to all of them,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said last week on “SportsCenter.”
That would include a 29-man roster for the first month of the season (instead of 26) and a first for the World Series: no true home team.
“This is the time to be creative, right?” Black said on MLB Network Radio. “This is unprecedented activity that’s going on and we’re going to be faced with some challenges and if we decide to go deep into October or even into November, the neutral-site, whether it’s World Series, a championship series, that might have some appeal to me.”
Black would want this to be a one-time situation, which also would be the case with seven-inning doubleheaders.
Toronto Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins told the Associated Press there could be resistance, particularly to the shorter twinbills.
“You’re not playing the game that is written in the rulebooks,” he said. “It’s not the regulation game, it’s a different game. Bullpens and teams are built in a way to play nine innings. I’m sure there are people that would challenge that and I’m not so sure it’s something we should do.”
If Major League Baseball managed to start the season in early May, it would have roughly 21 weeks to fit in 162 games by the first week of October. The math doesn’t work on that without doubleheaders and maybe not even an All-Star break.
But the Los Angeles Times reported MLB is “hopeful” to still play the Midsummer Classic.
Whether or not there is an All-Star Game, baseball is in uncharted waters, just like every other league.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how that all works out,” Detroit Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire told MLive. “(We’re going to play) as many games as we can possibly play when we get back to it, and go from there. Just roll with it as best we can.”
