As the final month of the regular season enters is into its final weeks, Major League Baseball is in the process of finalizing its plans for the postseason — and a likely bubble concept.
While nothing is set in stone yet, many expect that the league will announce a bubble plan similar to the NHL. Recent reports indicated that Southern California and Texas emerged as favorites to host games, although other locations are still being considered as well.
A bubble plan makes sense, considering MLB can’t risk the postseason being interrupted by an unforeseen COVID-19 outbreak. While this seems to be the direction they are leaning, other scenarios continue being discussed.
According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the league is pondering whether to permit teams to play the best-of-three Wild Card Series at their home ballparks rather than include it as part of the bubble concept:
The league is weighing whether to stage the best-of-three wild-card round in teams’ home parks and then move to controlled, bubble-like environments or enter bubbles from the outset.
The Wild Card round is a new inclusion this year as MLB and the Players Association agreed to an expanded postseason. As it currently stands, the Los Angeles Dodgers as the No. 1 seed in the National League would face the No. 8 team in a best-of-three series.
The rest of the postseason would then be played at neutral sites without fans, as other professional sports leagues have demonstrated.
Dodgers embrace possibility of returning to Globe Life Field for World Series
At the end of August, the Dodgers got their first look at the Texas Rangers’ new ballpark, Glove Life Field. L.A. took two of three against Texas and showed they were capable of making the spacious stadium look tiny.
While home runs have been difficult to come by for most other teams at Globe Life Field, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts would be thrilled to return there for the Fall Classic. “As far as the bubble, if that’s what put in front of us, I’m all for it,” he said.
“If it’s playing games here in the World Series, I’m all for that too. You’ve still got to find a way to beat that opponent, not the ballpark.”
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