Hurricane Helene isn’t the only one being blamed for the chaos in the Mets-Braves schedule

Major League Baseball didn’t ask for Hurricane Helene to disrupt its two fantastic wild-card races. But the league is not innocent in avoiding the worst-case scenario it announced Wednesday: the possibility that the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets will play a doubleheader on Monday, the day before the postseason begins.

The ripple effects of the announced postponement of Wednesday and Thursday’s games, a series that could define both teams’ seasons, are enormous. The competitive disadvantages of playing 18 innings for a Wild Card Series cannot be overstated. (But if, somehow, one or both games aren’t needed, they won’t be played.)

Could this have been prevented?

Maybe.

MLB has the power to push logistics, to force both teams to play when and where they want, as long as the union agrees. But traditionally it has tried to please both teams, and in this case, that was impossible. The storm that would paralyze Atlanta for two days was preceded by the perfect storm of events that made this a major headache for the league.

Thursday’s game is a makeup game for an April 10 game that was postponed after the Mets did pregame preparation and batting practice and didn’t want to come back early and sacrifice a day off. So they asked MLB to add the game to this September series, not only an unusually long wait for a makeup game but also a function of a more balanced schedule that would see division teams play each other less often, making rescheduling more difficult. (The Braves agreed to the proposal.)

To all fans in Braves Country who will be affected by Hurricane Helene: stay safe. photo.twitter.com/AZ99CPQ7BJ

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) September 25, 2024

The Mets likely would not want to reschedule Thursday’s game to last Monday, another day off for both clubs, as they had just played a Sunday night game.

The Braves were concerned about the expected sellout crowd, and earlier in the week it looked as if Wednesday’s game would go on, a possibility that looked increasingly unlikely as the weather forecast worsened. By Tuesday, when the league was considering a time change, the forecast looked better in the evening. Rain began falling shortly after noon in Atlanta on Wednesday, and moving up the game’s start time would have made little difference unless the two teams agreed to an unprecedented morning start. (MLB doesn’t like starting games that aren’t likely to go at least five innings.)

Both teams — in the running but not yet assured of a playoff spot — ultimately looked out for their own best interests, which should come as no surprise. What’s up for debate is whether the league, which met with both teams on Monday, should have exercised its power more boldly and forced the series to a neutral site or rearranged the schedule entirely, with a game on Monday and two more on Tuesday. Maybe.

On the one hand, the weather forecast looked very different earlier in the week, and all three sides thought Wednesday’s game wouldn’t be a problem. The hurricane doesn’t hit Atlanta until Thursday, with schools closed Thursday and Friday, and the possibility of one makeup game — not two — seemed considerably less daunting. The decision to change the series should have come by Sunday at the latest, when it wasn’t even clear how bad the storm would be or whether Atlanta would be in its path.

It would have been unprecedented — and a logistical nightmare — to decide earlier this week to move the entire series, or part of it, to a neutral site that requires both teams to be on board and proactive, which wasn’t the case. For a series with high stakes, it’s understandable that the league wouldn’t want to pull the plug on a highly anticipated, sold-out series.

It would have angered at least one, and probably both, teams to change the series format to give them back Thursday’s day off, especially since it was becoming clear to everyone involved that Thursday wasn’t going to be feasible. But with the regular season winding down and countless teams fighting for their playoff lives, perhaps it was better to err on the side of caution in this case as well. That might have required the unpleasant and the unprecedented, even if both teams were angry about it, and decided to move up a series even when the weather forecast hadn’t yet crystallized.

Because the downside is a nightmare, and it could get even more complicated if the Kansas City Royals, the AL wild-card contenders who play in Atlanta this weekend, have travel issues to get there. (If they can’t play Friday, it’ll almost certainly be a doubleheader on Saturday.)

MLB has — in recent years — scheduled every team to play at the same time on Sunday to close out the regular season. It creates excitement, drama, and you could argue that it balances the league as much as possible. Everyone gets to reset on Monday. Unless you’re the Braves or Mets, who could go 18 innings in preparation for a make-or-break Wild Card Series that could start on the road.

The only hope for both teams and the league now is for Arizona to bow out and make those games so meaningless that they don’t get played. (It’s widely believed that both teams would rather have the day off than play for a simple playoff spot.) The alternative is bad for the Braves, bad for the Mets, and just plain bad for baseball.

(Photo: Kevin D. Liles/Atlanta Braves/Getty Images)