Hurricane Helene is making a mess of the end of Major League Baseball’s regular season, and the league is facing no shortage of criticism from fans and pundits regarding how it’s handled the situation. But the speed and rapid intensification of the storm created a set of unique circumstances for the league—in turn, adding another layer of drama to the final days before the postseason.
The storm, projected to make landfall Thursday night in Florida’s Big Bend region as at least a Category 3 hurricane, is forecast to produce heavy rainfall and tropical-force winds throughout much of the Southeast over the next 24 to 36 hours. Because of that, MLB postponed the final two games of a Mets-Braves series at Truist Park late Wednesday.
The two teams, each battling for Wild Card position in the National League playoff chase, are now scheduled to play a straight doubleheader on Monday, otherwise an off day for MLB between Sunday’s end of the regular season and Tuesday’s postseason start. The Mets-Braves makeup games, however, will not be played if they are not needed to determine playoff eligibility.
But should the games be played, the Braves or Mets are facing a potential cross-country trip right after the doubleheader to face the Padres or Dodgers—and with a pitching staff depleted from the doubleheader. As a result, the competitive landscape of the postseason could be significantly altered.
Not Always Like This
MLB has had a long history of being proactive in responding to hurricanes toward the end of the regular season—when there are fewer available dates to reschedule games. For example, the approach of Hurricane Irma in 2017 prompted MLB to shift a Rays-Yankees series from Tropicana Field to Citi Field in New York. Just last year, Hurricane Hilary—a rare tropical storm to hit Southern California—similarly led the league to reschedule a Rays-Angels series in Anaheim.
MLB sources, however, tell Front Office Sports there were some key differences in the situation surrounding Hurricane Helene. The system was not a named tropical storm by the National Hurricane Center until Tuesday morning, and before then had been thought to be a far smaller storm not as likely to impact the Atlanta area significantly.
Though Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency Tuesday afternoon, MLB and its weather advisors thought as recently as early Wednesday there still could be a window that evening to play—hopes that were dashed a few hours later.
Because of the swift acceleration of Hurricane Helene, there was essentially no window to consider shifting any of the games to a neutral site. Such a move not only requires approval of the teams and MLB Players Association—something that might have been difficult to obtain given the competitive implications—but also a minimum of 24 hours’ notice to prepare another ballpark operationally.
“I’ve never seen a hurricane intensify so quickly and in the way that Helene has here,” a league source tells FOS.
More problems are possible over the weekend as the Royals—also fighting for playoff position—are due to travel to Atlanta on Thursday after completing a series in Washington. Depending on the extent of the storm damage in Georgia, though, there may be schedule alterations to the Royals-Braves games.
