Whit Merrifield and the Atlanta Braves found themselves in the middle of a scheduling nightmare, capping off an already wild season. Two pivotal games against the New York Mets had to be rescheduled due to the threat of Hurricane Helene. Both games had serious playoff implications for both teams.
The solution? A doubleheader the day before the MLB Postseason kicked off. Sounds exhausting, right? While most of the league was resting up and traveling to prepare for the intense playoff battles, the Braves and Mets were still grinding it out on the field. But here’s the kicker: it was entirely avoidable, and one Braves player wasn’t shy about voicing his frustrations.
Second baseman Whit Merrifield didn’t mince words when talking about the situation during an interview on Foul Territory. He put the blame squarely on the league’s shoulders, saying, “I think—I hope it was a good learning experience for Major League Baseball. I thought it was handled in a way they could learn from how they handled it.”
Merrifield clearly wasn’t happy with how things went down, and honestly, can you blame him? It was a logistical mess from start to finish, a nightmare scenario for both teams.
Let’s break it down. The Mets had to fly to Milwaukee for a series, then come back to Atlanta for a single day to play the doubleheader. Then, they hopped right back on a plane and returned to Milwaukee for their Wild Card series.
And the Braves? They didn’t get off easy, either. They had to fly straight out to the West Coast to face the San Diego Padres the very next night. It was chaos, pure and simple, and according to Merrifield, it didn’t need to be that way.
“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 added. He’s right—hurricanes don’t just sneak up out of nowhere. There was time, and yet, somehow, the MLB didn’t pull the trigger on an earlier, more sensible decision.
Sure, any change would have been inconvenient. But the way Merrifield sees it, nothing could have been more inconvenient than playing two high-stakes games the day before the playoffs. Especially when both teams were in need of rest and preparation. Playing a back-to-back right before the postseason’s intense pressure kicks in? That’s a recipe for disaster, especially for teams with championship aspirations.
Merrifield’s frustration with the league isn’t a new development, either. He called out the MLB after getting hit in the head by a pitch earlier in the season. With hit-by-pitches on the rise, Merrifield expressed concern for player safety and felt the league needed to step in with some serious measures. So, this isn’t a player afraid to call out mistakes when he sees them.
But it’s not just on the MLB. The Braves, according to Merrifield, had some control over the scheduling as well. They could’ve pushed for an earlier solution but didn’t. This means they share in the blame on some level. One thing’s for sure, though—after this debacle, neither the Braves nor MLB are likely to let something like this happen again. Lessons learned, hopefully.
