It may well end up being a moot point. But if the Braves and Mets end up clinching wild-card spots by Sunday over the Diamondbacks, MLB would do well to relieve the teams of playing on Monday at Truist Park as it has decreed.
At that point in this specific situation, the games would only be for seeding purposes in the National League playoffs. If both the Mets and Braves preferred to let their results over 160 games stand as final, it would make much more sense to allow that to happen. It is a virtual certainty that both teams would elect to travel directly to the site of their wild-card round over playing each other on Monday and then going to the playoff site (possibly as far as San Diego) the same day to play Tuesday.
A force of nature put MLB in position to push back Wednesday and Thursday’s Braves-Mets games at Truist Park to Monday. It’s scheduled as a doubleheader, though it’s understood that MLB would only require one game if that eliminated either team.
It wasn’t an ideal option. The competitive disadvantage that it places on the Braves and/or Mets to play on Monday and then have to travel the same day to start wild-card play the following day is considerable. But given unplayable weather conditions in Atlanta, there wasn’t much choice.
The commissioner’s office does have a choice, though, to at least move wisely in this particular case.
The Braves and Mets would have only played 160 games and not the full 162. There will be some lost revenue from not having one or two regular-season games. There is, perhaps, the sanctity of determining seeding over the full regular season and not 99% of it. Would the commissioner’s office really put its foot down over that?
Whatever the benefit would be for the Braves and/or Mets to play those games in that scenario – if one exists – it’s not anywhere close to the disadvantage that playing on Monday would create for either team. The only benefit would be to their opponents in the wild card, which doesn’t make sense. Hypothetically, why should San Diego gain an immense advantage over the Braves because of a hurricane?
MLB has not revealed a plan for this circumstance, but reading tea leaves, it appears that MLB is at least considering not requiring the Braves and Mets to play on Monday if they both have clinched by Sunday. It would not be a surprise if it ended up that way.
It’s an entirely possible situation for the standings to create that scenario. It would only require the Braves and Mets to both have as many wins as the Diamondbacks by the end of play Sunday.
In that scenario, Arizona would lose tiebreakers to both the Mets and Braves by virtue of having lost the season series to both teams. From there, seeding could be determined by record and then tiebreaker (which the Braves hold).
Before Saturday’s games, the Braves and Mets were both 87-71 and the Diamondbacks had virtually the same record, 88-72.
And here’s the funny thing – this would seem to be the preferred scenario for the Braves, as well as the Mets. It’s the only way in which either team could avoid having to play Monday and then go to the playoffs. As neither the Mets nor the Braves can expand their lead over the other beyond two games by Sunday, neither can eliminate the other by that point. They can only both eliminate the Diamondbacks.
The Braves and Mets pulling for each other? It’s only the latest strange twist of the season.
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