Atlanta Braves could join AL East clubs in radical realignment plan

Radical Relocation

THAT LEADS TO ANOTHER IDEA that I’m sure the MLB hang-wringers have already bandied about:  shift teams around between Arizona and Florida so that you end up with the current divisions, but in Spring stadiums they don’t normally call ‘home’.

For example, you’ve got 3 of the NL East clubs on the East Coast of Florida already.  A means of reconstituting the full division might look like this:  bring the Atlanta Braves over to join Washington in West Palm (where they once spent many-a-Spring), put the Phillies in Jupiter to join the Marlins there.  The Mets are just up the coast in Port St. Lucie.

The now-displaced Cardinals then hop to Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, the Yankees head to North Port… and so the games of musical stadiums progresses until all divisions are co-located.

The biggest problem there?  If you’re really going to do that, you’d need to have all of the AL in one state and NL in the other.  At least it would avoid forcing a universal DH rule for at least one more year.

CONTRACTUAL ISSUES.  One additional potential problem for the Atlanta Braves involves their agreement with the city of North Port and Sarasota County.  There are civic events scheduled throughout the year that require use the 90-acre site: this was part of the plan that got local buy-in (literally) for the facility.

Of course, given the current climate, the scheduling for a lot of those events may be up in the air, and the local governing authorities could well be open to the idea of having major league games – even if not attended by fans – in the park as a means of regaining some lost revenues.

Those are all details that would have to be worked out over time.

As we suggested last week, there’s plenty of motivation for all parties involved to get some plan in motion.  This newest idea continues to reflect the fact that MLB and the players association are still trying to come up with some way to play baseball this Summer.

THE REAL PROBLEM.  Until there’s a viable, approved vaccine for COVID-19, the specter of contamination is still going to be a real possibility since this blasted virus is so easily transmitted.

As such, once any player gets the bug – and it will happen – everything would then be thrown into chaos, for this is the one scenario that would easily and quickly derail even the most perfect of these imperfect plans.