NEWSLETTER
This was obviously coming sooner or later, but MLB made it official this evening: more Spring Training games have officially been cancelled.
Games through March 17, when the Cubs would’ve been hosting the Angels at Sloan Park, have all been wiped off the schedule:
Three weeks of spring training games have now been officially cancelled; only 10 days remaining on the original spring-training calendar. https://t.co/YQCLu4ihkV
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) March 5, 2022
MLB has officially wiped Spring Training games off of the calendar through March 17. pic.twitter.com/1gD18sdYA3
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) March 5, 2022
With some previously-scheduled split-squad days, there are now just 13 games left on the Cubs’ official Spring Training calendar. In order to actually start games on March 18, however, you would have to see a deal completed by, what, March 11? That is next Friday, and I’m not sure anyone thinks that is happening (the renewed talks about the 14-team playoff notwithstanding).
In other words, my sense is that more Spring Training games are going to be cancelled, at which point MLB is going to have to create a new Spring schedule from scratch anyway – the teams will need at least a dozen games to gear up, right? Probably more, when you consider starting pitchers? That comes after some initial ramp-up time, the length of which is wildly unclear. All we know is that MLB has taken the position that health and safety requires about four total weeks of Spring Training, as they felt the three-week summer camp in 2020 was not enough. (And, I presume, they want to be able to squeeze in more games.)
That is all to say this is a mess, and it’s incredibly unclear what the spring schedule will ultimately look like or when it will begin. It’s gotta be hell for folks and businesses in Arizona and Florida who are trying to figure out their operations.
