Major League Baseball’s 2020 Postseason Bubble Plan has been approved by the MLB Players Association, the MLB announced Tuesday. The Division Series, the League Championship Series and the World Series will all be held at neutral-site ballparks where players will be arranged in nearby one-place bubbles.
A bubble approach to MLB will help reduce the risk of another coronavirus outbreak. Shortly after the start of the 2020 season, a major coronavirus outbreak broke out in Miami Marlins. The St. Louis Cardinals also suffered a team-wide fury and both jeopardized the MLB season. Overall, the league has been forced to postpone 43 total games on schedule due to positive COVID-19 cases.
Here are the special places for bubbles for extended playoffs:
- NLDS: Globe Life Field of Minute Maid Park in Arlington, Texas and Houston
- ALDS: Petco Park in San Diego and Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles
- NLCS: Globe Life Field
- ALCS: Petco Park
- World Series: Globe Life Field
A Covid-19 outbreak during the postseason will erode the tournament’s schedule and competitive integrity. The baseball ball postseason also coincides with the start of the flu season, so incentives have been added to help players decide on a safer option.
Here are three things to know about the league’s plans for the 2020 Plays:
1. This regular season will change
When Major League Baseball returned to play in July, it was the only major American professional team sports league committed to traveling amid the coronavirus epidemic. Other sports organizations such as the WNBA, NBA and MLS have determined that a one-place bubble setup is the right choice for their return-to-play plans.
Our RJ Anderson previously broke down why he wasn’t using the baseball bubble plan for the 2020 regular season.
When Bezab first returned, there were no formal formal restrictions for players or other team members, such as managers and coaches. After the Marlins and Cardinals broke into institutions, the league was sticking to masks and social distance guidelines in dugouts during games.
The league also adds the requirement that each team travel with a compliance officer, who ensures that team staff and players adhere to the league’s health and safety protocols.
Although the league’s postseason setup won’t completely eliminate travel – it will actually be that the first teams are leaving their geographical divisions – a bubble setup for each series in the postseason will help reduce the likelihood of an outbreak. Players still have to follow the same, strict guidelines as the regular season.
2. Quarantine for players, will begin weeks before the Family Plays
During negotiations on the format for this year’s postseason, one of the disagreements between the players and the league was the ban for the families of players who wanted to enter the bubble. By Tuesday, families will be allowed to stay with the leading players, and during the post-season, Rosenthal reports.
Families of players will be allowed to quarantine with players on competitive teams for seven days leading up to the postseason. After that, they will be able to stay together for the completion of their team’s playoff run. For families deciding to go this route, they will be considered part of the MLB bubble. All members inside the bubble will be tested daily.
According to Joel Sherman of the NY Post, all players on the competitive teams will travel to hotels next week (the last weekend of the regular season) to “create a quarantine-like situation before the playoffs.” Here’s more from Sherman:
Some players fought back against the notion that the sport was performing well in the reduction in COVID-19 cases last month and were concerned that teams that went to the quarantine in late September and reached the World Series could be away from families for a month or more. .
But the MLB has expressed fears of this coming away and not ending the playoffs and has strongly pushed for safer potential protocols to complete the year.
So the plan that was armed is to have all the contesting clubs – even at home – to go to the hotel in the final weekend of the regular season. All players on the 40-man roster and IL will be asked to join the quarantine, because once it starts, clubs will no longer be able to invite any player from the alternate site to join the 28-man roster – it will only be those who are in the quarantine. .
As teams move away from the playoff argument, players at those clubs can leave the hotel if they wish.
The families of managers and coaches were not included in the MLB / MLBPA agreement due to insufficient capacity in the hotels. But, as the posts ason zen field decreases, there will be space, Rosenthal adds. All members inside the bubble will be tested daily.
3. Locations are set; Attendance is in the air
The World Series will be held at Rangers’ new ballpark, and the bubbles are such that no team will play at home after the first round. In the best-of-three wild card rounds at the start of the scatter, High Seed will host all the games on his home bubblepark. The series is set to begin in the days leading up to the regular season on September 27 and will quickly trim the playground to eight teams moving to neutral locations.
Fans have not been able to participate in the MLB Games this season due to the epidemic, although that may change in October. Speaking earlier this week, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said he hoped fans would be able to participate in the LCS and World Series games in some capacity.
