With baseball shut down amid the coronavirus outbreak, MLB faces a litany of questions about how to move forward with the 2020 season if and when it is safe to play. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

Major League Baseball is in a state of flux. Having shut down spring training and postponed opening day indefinitely as the world attempts to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, baseball is reckoning with a barrage of problems and unforeseen questions.

What remains to be seen is how the game would work when (or if) it returns at some point in 2020, likely at least two months after games had originally been slated to start.

We asked around, amid the uncertainty, about some of the big questions looming over the sport. Here’s where things stand now.

What’s the latest date they could play the World Series? And would they consider playing it at a neutral site?

The answer to the first question is held in the answer to the second. MLB could play regular-season games to the end of October in its regular stadiums, then shift a good portion of its postseason to neutral sites in warmer environments or under roofs. Conceivably you could play at those sites as late as December. (The Texas Rangers’ brand new Globe Life Field could be an attractive all-weather option.)

They’re not done with the short-term negotiation of when the season will start, which makes this hard to predict, but everyone seems very determined to get some sort of season in, which will almost certainly necessitate playing past the usual endpoint. Important to remember when we talk about scheduling: There will need to be a 2-4 week period of planning and physical ramping back up — a second spring (or summer) training, as it were.

We could see a version of the recently leaked postseason format, given a shortened season would perhaps allow for further creativity. To refresh your memory, that format would increase the number of playoff teams from 10 to 14. Rather than one-game playoffs, the wild-card round would be a best-of-three. The team with the best record in each league would get a bye into the division series. The other division winners would host the entirety of the wild-card series after choosing their opponents.

Because it would allow more regular-season games, general managers are warming to the idea of a neutral-site World Series. Most view the regular season as a better indicator of team strength.

The league still says it’s committed to playing as many games as possible. What are the most extreme measures we could see to fill the regular season slate?

There’s only so much the league could do here, but it could schedule fewer off days and a handful of doubleheaders if the union agreed to it. Teams traveling from west to east might lose the typical recuperative day off. And, again, it could gain a month on the back end with regular-season games in October.

Everything right now is hypothetical, but if they’re forced to remake the entire schedule — rather than just start from somewhere in the middle — they could look to arrange it geographically.

On the topic of a shortened and very dense regular season, one GM observed, “Looking back in a year, we’re going to see a huge spike in births, divorces and pitcher injuries.” The GM acknowledged that the route forward may involve playing through the All-Star break ...

Is the All-Star Game, scheduled for July in Los Angeles, in jeopardy of being canceled? Or could it be leveraged in a different way?

The fate of the Midsummer Classic will depend in part on how long the coronavirus shutdown lasts — the longer it lasts, the more things that will get canceled. The Hall of Fame induction ceremony could get postponed simply because it still might not be safe to have crowds of that size gather. The Field of Dreams game is also up in the air now.

View photos LOS ANGELES, CA - JULY 23: The logo of 2020 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was revealed on July 23, 2019 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, CA. (Kyusung Gong/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) More

Fox paid a lot of money to televise the All-Star Game, which will be a consideration and a strong reason to not cancel it outright.

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