Texas May Join Arizona and Florida as Part of Plan for MLB to Return, Report Says

Details are sketchy, but Major League baseball is considering a plan that would have baseball played in just three states this summer - Arizona, Florida and Texas.

In Major League Baseball’s never-ending quest to fund a workaround to the 2020 baseball season, currently mired in a lockdown due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, a third possible plan to get the sport on the field has emerged.

The latest idea is for three states – Florida, Texas and Arizona – to host the sport for the 2020 regular season.

In a report posted by CBS Sports Monday night, the plan is based around five Major League ballparks with either a fixed or moveable roof. The idea would be that Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla, Marlins Field in Miami, Minute Maid Field in Houston, the brand-new-and-yet-to-be-used Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas and Chase Field in Phoenix would be the focal points of the sport.

Previous plans to have made their way into print have included using Chase Field and the network of spring training facilities in Arizona to host all 30 big league teams or having Arizona and Florida to each take 15 teams and play the field out that way.

There was no clarity how this latest plan would break down. Each state could take 10 teams perhaps, or one state could have a dozen teams, another 10 and a third eight. The CBS report didn’t say as much, but it might make some sense for Arizona to have six teams and Texas and Florida a dozen each; that way each of the five roofed stadiums. would be “home” to six different teams.

MLB was two weeks away from opening day when the sport shut down spring training and encouraged players and staff to return home as the idea of social distancing in the midst of a pandemic grew.

Ever since then, the sport has been trying to find a way to get back on the field. There is little expectation that fans would be allowed in the stadiums to watch, but the sport could get all the games on television and thus get most or all of the billions of dollars MLB is due under terms of its various TV deals. About 60 percent of MLB’s income is from TV and radio deals.

Just last week, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told Fox Business that these ideas are all ways to "address limitations that may exist when businesses restart."

"The only real decision that we have made, the only real plan that we have is that baseball is not going to return until the public health situation has improved to the point that we're comfortable," Manfred said in the interview. "That we can play games in a manner that's safe for our players, our employees, our fans, and in a way that will not impact the public health situation adversely.”

Major League players would have to sign on to whatever plan comes up. Since at least some of the plans seem to involve quarantining players away from their families, it might be a hard sell

Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3

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