MLB considering radical re-alignment for 2020, per report

Bob Nightengale has an intriguing report indicating that MLB is considering doing a radical realignment for the 2020 season, with leagues and divisions based on where teams’ spring training homes are.

Under this scenario, all games would be played in Arizona and Florida, and teams would be based out of their spring facilities and would play games with no fans. There are fifteen teams that train in Arizona and fifteen teams that train in Florida, so that would allow two fifteen team leagues, with, presumably, no inter-league play.

Games would be played at spring facilities, other than, conceivably, games that were played at Chase Field, Marlins Park and Tropicana Field. Nightengale says there would be a universal DH, as well, in such a scenario.

This sort of plan is still fraught with difficulties, and I’m not sure how viable it is, but if there’s going to be any major league baseball played this season, it would likely be in a scenario such as this one, where travel is minimized and games are in a more controlled environment.

And yes, there are more important things in the world right now than baseball, but I suspect everyone involved in the game would like to try to have a season, if it is possible, and I imagine most baseball fans would like to see games played. The schedule could be structured in a way to spread out when games were played during the day to maximize the number of hours games would be on television, which would mean fans would get to see more games.

Its not an ideal solution, and I’m skeptical MLB could pull it off. But it shows that the Powers That Be are continuing to try to find a way to have some sort of baseball this season.