Braves' Merrifield Critical of How MLB Handled Hurricane-Impacted Games

The Atlanta Braves have a peculiar finish to what was already a roller coaster of a year. Due to Hurricane Helene, two crucial games with playoff implications for the Braves and New York Mets had to be rescheduled to a doubleheader the day before the start of the MLB Postseason. 

While everyone else was resting up and traveling, the was still baseball to be played. But this was viewed then and now as something completely preventable. One participant in this fiasco of a doubleheader wasn’t afraid to make that clear. 

Braves second baseman Whit Merrifield said in an interview on Foul Territory that MLB likely would be making this mistake again, at least that is what he hopes is the case. 

“I think - I hope it was a good learning experience for Major League Baseball,” Merrifield said. “I thought it was handled in a way they could learn from how they handled it.” 

The reality was it was a nightmare scenario for everyone involved. The Mets had to fly to Milwaukee, come back to Atlanta for a day and then circle back around and go back to Milwaukee for the Wild Card series. 

Meanwhile, the Braves had to race out west to take on the Padres in San Diego the following night. Merrifield thinks there many alternative decisions that could have been made. It would have been different had it been a freak storm, but hurricanes have plenty of notice. 

“This was a hurricane coming. Everyone knew this was coming...there was enough time with enough warning, and we both had mutual off days, that we could have made something work.”

Merrifield acknowledged that any decision would have involved some level of inconvenience. However, he doesn’t think any of the alternatives would have been more inconvenient than playing a crucial doubleheader the day before the postseason started. 

The Braves second baseman hasn’t shied away from putting his thoughts out there when he’s unsatisfied with how MLB goes about things. 

Earlier in the season, he blasted MLB after getting hit by a pitch to the head. Hit by pitches are on the rise and he felt the league needed to do something for the sake of safety. 

While the league should have stepped in, the Braves themselves do get some blame. They had some control over the decision-making at the time. It’s safe to say they won’t allow this situation to happen again either if they were asked.