While the 2020 Major League Baseball season has not been forced to shut down, there have been a number of teams to experience coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreaks a mere month into the 60-game schedule.
Other leagues have had more success with their seasons, particularly ones that have utilized a bubble, such as the NBA, NHL, MLS and WNBA. While MLB has been able to limit the number of coronavirus cases, all of those leagues have had zero combined cases between players and staff members over recent weeks.
After seeing how successful a bubble can be, MLB has begun discussing the potential of utilizing one of their own for the 2020 postseason. According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, it appears those discussions are beginning to get more serious:
Major League Baseball is in the early stages of drafting an operating manual for a playoff bubble, the same initial step it took in drawing up its coronavirus protocols for the regular season and another sign that the league intends to pursue a more strictly contained postseason, sources familiar with the situation told ESPN.
MLB has an expanded postseason in 2020 so 16 teams will make it as opposed to the usual 10, which could complicate things for a potential bubble. The number of people involved in a season is the main reason why the MLB Players Association was opposed to doing a bubble for the entire season.
MLB looking to lock down locations for bubble
As the NHL has done, it appears the MLB is in the process of finding multiple locations to host the National and American League playoffs.
While a number of cities are still being considered, Southern California and Texas are currently believed to be the favorites:
The 16-team postseason could begin in two geographic areas with two sites each, with Southern California and Texas emerging as early favorites and New York and Chicago/Milwaukee also possibilities, sources said.
Southern California and Texas would both make sense to host the postseason as not only do they have weather serviceable enough for it in October, but they both also have multiple MLB ballparks.
Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles Dodgers), Angel Stadium (L.A. Angels) and Petco Park (San Diego Padres) give Southern California three parks, while Texas has two in Minute Maid Park (Houston Astros) and Globe Life Field (Texas Rangers). Both of the Texas stadiums also have roofs in case weather became an issue.
While discussions still seem to be in the early stages, the postseason is just over a month away, so this will all need to come together quickly for MLB to have a successful October.
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