photo: Globe Life Field (Texas Rangers)
The St. Louis Cardinals were scheduled to participate in the official opening of the new Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas with an exhibition game against the Texas Rangers to close spring training. However, the March 23 contest was canceled.
What if the Cardinals instead ended up playing their entire 2020 schedule in Globe Life and the surrounding area in the Longhorn State?
A new proposal surfaced Monday evening opens up thoughts of such a possibility.
The basics of another scenario reportedly under consideration by Major League Baseball to enable the 2020 season to begin before the COVID-19 all clear has been sounded has emerged via R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports.
This plan includes Texas as a third playing “hub” along with the two spring training base locales in Arizona and Florida.
This raises a number of questions, yet unanswered.
Anderson noted the allure of indoor playing facilities, as there are a total of five domes in the three states, including one in Phoenix. However, the two each in Florida and Texas are nearly four hours apart, creating what would appear to be a significant logistical challenge, at least for games outside the division.
While Arizona and Florida offer ample spring training bases for teams, including Texas means just two major league facilities would be available – in Houston and Arlington.
In Arizona and Florida, teams could be clustered around the dome cities. (In Florida, they are Miami and St. Petersburg.)
How would that work in Texas?
- Where would the imported teams have their bases?
- With no other MLB facilities nearby, where other than the domes would teams play their games? (College or minor league ballparks?)
(Update: On this latter point, there is the old Arlington Stadium (which was was converted to house football) as well as a Double-A facility in Frisco, both located in the DFW Metroplex. Further, independent Sugar Land is based in the Houston area. Sugar Land is rumored to gain MLB affiliation in 2021. So there could be other parks available.)
From the familiarity and facility perspectives, the Texas-assigned teams displaced from their spring homes would appear to be at a disadvantage, albeit perhaps equally so for all (10? teams). Players from those clubs may require extra convincing.
From a distance at least, the more locations that are added to the resumption plan, the more complex the necessary tight management of sheltering and testing of personnel may be. Colleges, unlike MLB parks, are not under baseball’s control, for example.
One obvious positive in this approach, however, is that current division alignments could be maintained, something that did not seem possible with the Arizona-Florida Plan.
Whether or not you believe that all 30 teams could actually return home to finish the back end of the 2020 schedule, not ruling out the possibility may have appeal to MLB organizations. It could enable them to continue to avoid issuing refunds to fans for tickets purchased. At least late season games in home stadiums could still be designated as “postponed” rather than “canceled”.
The Arizona-Florida-Texas idea is far from perfect logistically. Clustering divisions would create an odd number of teams alignment that would seem to complicate playing all the extra games MLB would like to jam into the schedule.
Another positive is that the three-state plan is inherently a three-time zone plan, allowing more games to be televised at their normal times in local markets. With television the main revenue driver for teams in 2020, the importance of maximizing viewership should not be underestimated.
Anderson also noted that the governor of Texas is encouraging the return of professional sports in his state, a stance similar to positions already taken by his peers in the two MLB spring training states.
A division structure
I took a look at how a balanced 10-10-10 team distribution might work from the division and spring training perspectives. I should be clear, however, that Anderson acknowledged that he does not know how teams would be assigned.
In this example, I took the most logical approach. Teams are listed by division and assumed playing state with their spring base location listed alongside.
| AL East | Spring | NL East | Spring | ||
| Florida | Yankees | Florida | Florida | Mets | Florida |
| (St. Pete?) | Tampa Bay | Florida | (Miami?) | Washington | Florida |
| Boston | Florida | Atlanta | Florida | ||
| Toronto | Florida | Miami | Florida | ||
| Baltimore | Florida | Philadelphia | Florida | ||
| AL Central | Spring | NL Central | Spring | ||
| Texas | Minnesota | Florida | Texas | St. Louis | Florida |
| (Arlington or Houston) | Cleveland | Arizona | (Houston or Arlington) | Cubs | Arizona |
| Kansas City | Arizona | Milwaukee | Arizona | ||
| Detroit | Florida | Cincinnati | Arizona | ||
| White Sox | Arizona | Pittsburgh | Florida | ||
| AL West | Spring | NL West | Spring | ||
| Arizona | Angels | Arizona | Arizona | Dodgers | Arizona |
| (Phoenix) | Houston | Florida | (Phoenix) | San Francisco | Arizona |
| Seattle | Arizona | San Diego | Arizona | ||
| Oakland | Arizona | Colorado | Arizona | ||
| Texas | Arizona | Arizona | Arizona |
The only real anomalies appear to be the Texas teams themselves. Houston trains in Florida, but its West Division playing alignment would put the team in Arizona. In this example, the AL West Rangers would stay near their own spring base in Arizona, while giving up their regular season home to Central Division teams.
My initial conclusion
After this first pass through the various considerations, I am struggling to see the major benefit of three locations vs. two – except for the huge potential advantage of maintaining the current division alignment.
That alone may be enough reason to fully vet the idea, though as Anderson wisely cautioned, this and every other rumored proposal to start the season should be taken with a grain of salt.
For more
I discuss this subject (along with Minor League contraction, the MLB salary dispute over playing in empty stadiums, some high-profile players reluctant to return in a quarantined environment and more) with Cardinals play-by-play announcer Dan McLaughlin in this week’s “Wednesday with Walton” podcast at ScoopswithDannyMac.com.
Listen in!
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