It’s possible that the primary leagues are still playing bubbles this year.
In the wake of coronavirus outbreaks that have interrupted the season for three teams, Major League Baseball is considering whether to move the postseason into a bubble, according to a person briefed on the matter but not authorized to discuss it publicly.
The league is preparing what the user called “emergency plans for the playoffs”, but warned that none of those plans are guaranteed, with the option that groups can continue to bet on stadiums in the house. Emergency plans can come with a postseason bubble or relocate all or part of the postseason to unbiased sites with warm weather and low spread of the virus.
The unbiased site option can be confusing due to two factors: first, a relatively much-tended domain for the virus in September can become a hot spot in October; and second, as Dr. Anthony Fauci already told The Times, the start of the flu season adds some other threat factor.
“The flu season begins in October,” said Dr. Dena Grayson, a pandemic specialist in Florida. “Good with that.”
Grayson said, “The least harmful thing would be to have a bubble.”
The Miami Marlins and Philadelphia Phillies were out of play for a week due to an outbreak in the Marlins, with the Phillies seated to make sure the outbreak didn’t spread to their team. The St. Louis Cardinals will be out of the game for at least two weeks, with no constant return date and no chance of betting on a full schedule of 60 games.
“I think you’re 60 or not, it’s complicated at this point,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Monday. “I think it’s imaginable that they play enough games to be credible, to be a credible competitor this season.”
MLB has not decided what it would be like if a team were hit through a playoff outbreak, however, preventing the playoffs for a week would possibly not be sustainable for other groups in the playoffs or for the league’s televised partners. On the other hand, a team that advances to the playoffs just because their opponent was disqualified by an epidemic might not be satisfactory.
‘Now you’re starting to communicate on a ‘Hunger Games’ stage, ‘ said Grayson.
The league had explored a bubble situation throughout the season, with features to play in Arizona; Arizona and Texas; Arizona, Texas and Florida. The star players, adding Mike Trout of the Angels and Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers, opposed the concept of isolating themselves from their families for 4 months.
A postseason bubble would not last more than a month, with players on the loose to leave as soon as they are eliminated.
A bubble cannot pose a threat to a player contracting the virus, but it can reduce it. Dr. Zach Binney, an epidemiologist at Emory University, said he would propose that the groups be quarantined for 3 days before entering the bubble. At this point, players can simply enter the bubble and playoffs can start, but no off-field contact with players from other groups for 4 more days.
“If an outbreak occurs, it remains limited to this team,” Binney said. “If this team is going to be eliminated from the playoffs, so be it. But at least that way, you can say that there is probably very little threat of being transferred to the team, because baseball is a socially remote sport.”
The Phillies took the opposite draw to the Marlins on a day when four Marlins players had already tested positive. No Phillies player was infected.
Binney said it would be preferable a week of quarantine before the game, but said his plan took into account the biggest threat of injury from the final groups for a week and then restarted. Three days of quarantine and four days of off-field contact between the groups would be a moderate commitment.
“Then you’re in a week’s procedure of separating the groups from the larger community,” he said. “It’s imaginable that anything happens on the eighth, nine or tenth day, but it’s pretty unlikely. So I would say that at that point, you can move on to the general bubble protocol: think that everyone is in it and did not bring the virus with them.
Angelinos manager Joe Maddon said he would be willing to take advantage of the merits of a World Series in hot weather in later years. He said he’d make the bubble for this year, and only this year.
“We can’t become a tv game of truth made for television,” he said. “You may not get the functionality you’re looking for, and I think you’ll miss a lot of interest. We have to get back to the fans. For now, I will take any kind of experimentation, so that we can be informed of it. It’s a good time to do it.
“In the long run, we want enthusiasts to succeed, to be the national pastime.”