In an effort to avoid any potential COVID-19 outbreaks like the League saw during the regular season, the MLB will finally now employ bubbles for the postseason.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported the news of the agreement between Major League Baseball and the Players Association on the bubble being officially announced on Tuesday while ESPN’s Jeff Passan highlighted some details on the two bubbles last Friday.
These details include the American League playing in California and National League in Texas with the wild card round games being played at the home stadiums of the 1-4 seeds.
Joel Sherman provided additional details including teams in the bubble carrying their entire 40-man rosters since player transfers between the big club and the physical alternate site will not be allowed.
Bubble sites for the NHL, NBA, and MLS (aside from some early issues) have been running remarkably well all things considered. The plan though isn’t soundproof since a major sticking point continues to be how you deal with player families entering the bubble, especially considering this was a point completely ignored during the course of the regular season and the MLB’s complete and total failure to develop a decent plan for it.
Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner was among players who weren’t thrilled with the idea of families having to quarantine for seven-days after a regular season where not many outside precautions by the League were taken.
“You’re asking us to choose between our families and the playoffs? That’s a stupid question, especially when we’ve played however many successful games this season. Obviously, there were two blips early on (outbreaks with the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals) but it was out of poor choices by individuals. Other than that, it has been a pretty successful season. Why change all the protocols now?
“… We finish the last week of our season at home. I’d be at my house with my wife. Then they’re like, ‘We’ve got to separate you guys.’ I don’t understand why she would be quarantined. I lived with her the whole season.”
