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Could the idea of a postseason baseball bubble catch on?

Four months after exploring a multi-city bubble construct for baseball’s truncated regular season, not only is the idea back in play for the postseason, but MLB officials consider it critical to being able to stage the lucrative expanded playoffs uninterrupted by a potential outbreak.

MLB discussed and monitored the bubble constructs used by the NBA and the NHL as the concept remained on its radar all summer. Officials saw how a spate of COVID-19 cases within two organizations, the Miami Marlins and the St. Louis Cardinals, severely disrupted schedules during the season’s first month played without a bubble and heard continued warnings from medical officials about a second wave of the virus striking in the fall. While discussions remain in the planning phase and the league had yet to formally present a plan to the MLB Players Association as of last week, the idea is beginning to take shape.

Chicago is one possible location for an MLB postseason regional hub.getty images

A so-called pre-bubble environment would first be implemented during the final week of the 60-game regular season, according to two sources familiar with discussions, where players and essential personnel would be sequestered in hotels while on the road and even during homestands when not at the ballpark. Those measures are to help ensure that everyone is virus-free when they enter the bubble environment for the expanded 16-team postseason, which is expected to generate some $1 billion for the league.

The vision for the postseason’s first round is for the eight best-of-three series to be played at four or five ballparks nationwide. Officials are exploring four broad regional hubs: Southern California (two ballparks in the Los Angeles area, one in San Diego); Texas (Arlington and Houston); the Chicago area (two in the city, one in Milwaukee); and New York (two ballparks). Weather, hotel availability and the proximity of the hotel to the ballpark are all factors that will be weighed. Whether a city is considered a hotspot for the virus in the fall is less of a factor because players and personnel would not be venturing into the community. 

As the postseason progresses, fewer hubs may be used. Officials now are working on a potential add-on to the league’s 113-page Operations Manual to include detailed intake screening protocols for the postseason as well as guidelines for acceptable hotel behavior. Most of the in-stadium protocols are already in place. In its return-to-play negotiations with the union this spring, MLB bargained for the right to move the postseason to a more restrictive environment, if circumstances warranted.

“You can’t make any mistakes in this,” one source who has firsthand knowledge of the planning said of the concept. “Everything needs to be done right, because if you bring someone with COVID into your bubble environment, the whole thing doesn’t work. Once you’re in there, there can’t be any breaches.”

To that point, among the issues that will need to be discussed with the union is the notion of select family members being permitted to enter and stay inside the bubbles. During the regular season’s first month, MLB has learned more about the virus’ incubation period and its rate of spread. The more people permitted inside the bubble, the more strain it puts on testing capacity. And officials know they need to be especially mindful about bringing into bubbles individuals not employed by clubs because they haven’t been tested at least every other day like players and essential staff.

As for playoff structure, MLB believes two games, featuring four teams, can definitely be played at the same ballpark in one day, if needed. One game may start at 1 p.m. with another scheduled at night to allow time in between for proper sanitization of the facility. 

MLB is in early discussions with television partners about staging more day games during the postseason, particularly in the first round. At this point, neither the league nor TV partners has an appetite to push the postseason into early November. Networks have slotted the playoffs in October before the presidential election, and risks of a resurgence of the virus loom as the weather becomes colder.

But because the multi-city bubble construct minimizes travel days, MLB envisions more flexibility on the front end of the postseason schedule if more time is needed to quarantine players or to make up any regular-season games.

In the spring, MLB had explored multi-city bubble environments for the regular season, pinpointing Arizona, Texas and Florida as possibilities. But players balked at the possibility because at the time it meant potentially several months sequestered away from family. Now, with the playoffs fast approaching, it’s viewed as a necessity if baseball is to crown a champion with an uninterrupted postseason. 

“We are planning for it and planning very precisely,” the source said. “We planned for this early. It’s just a matter of executing it.”

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