MLB sounds vastly unprepared for the likely event of a Braves-Mets rainout

The eyes of the baseball world are on Atlanta this week, as the Braves and Mets square off in a three-game set that figures to go a long way toward sorting out the MLB postseason picture. After a win in game one on Tuesday night, Atlanta is now just a game back of New York and a half-game back of the Arizona Diamondbacks as the three teams duke it out for the final two NL Wild Card spots.

Unfortunately, it seems like Mother Nature might not be down to cooperate with all of that: The forecast in the Atlanta area is rough over the next couple of days, with a flood watch in effect from 2 p.m. ET Wednesday through 2 p.m. ET Friday and nearly 100 percent chance of rain.

With 7:20 p.m. ET start times scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, it seems like one or both of these games is at risk of getting postponed. And with just a few days remaining in the regular season — and the new Wild Card round format creating some quick turnaround times at the start of the playoffs — any shuffling of the schedule could have some serious consequences.

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MLB's potential contingency plans for Braves-Mets rainouts leave a lot to be desired

The league office has yet to make any sort of official announcement about how it might handle any postponements, we can make some educated guesses — and none of them sound particularly good.

New York, Atlanta and Arizona are all so tightly bunched that any postponed games are nearly guaranteed to have some bearing on the final Wild Card standings, even if it's just sorting out which teams get which seeds. That means that the two teams will have to be back at Truist Park on Monday, possibly for a doubleheader if both Wednesday and Thursday end in rainouts. Whichever team comes out of that with a playoff spot will then have to turn around and play Game 1 of its NL Wild Card series the very next day, likely in a different city.

Even setting aside the logistical and physical difficulties of playing a do-or-die game against an arch rival one day and then hopping on a plane and starting a postseason series the next, this schedule also seems designed to throw each team's rotation and bullpen usage into chaos. It's a tough draw for whichever team makes it through to October, and from MLB's point of view, it figures to create a less-than-ideal product during the debut of the 2024 postseason.

There's only so much that can be done about the weather, but it's hard not to wonder why the league didn't look at potential neutral sites as a workaround in order to avoid putting this much of a burden on whichever team earns itself a playoff spot.