Jeff Passan explains why the MLB is looking into possibly July or August as potential start dates, and how the delay will affect players. (1:55)

In retrospect, the conference calls Major League Baseball regularly holds these days must seem like a waste of time to some of the participants. The circumstances to which MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association must react are changing so quickly that what once might have seemed important the day or week before is now completely forgotten.

Only eight days ago -- just eight days! -- the big step made by the owners to combat the coronavirus was to bar a handful of reporters from clubhouses. Now the discussions among the leaders in the sport is how to make the best of a worsening situation, and what the damage to the baseball industry might be, in the end. Airlines and small businesses are rightly getting the bulk of attention, but Major League Baseball stands to take a huge hit, because even if ballparks open during the summer, no one knows how much potential customers will be dragged down by the devastated national economy. No one knows how fans will feel about gathering in packed ballparks even after state and local governments give an all-clear.

As owners shared in a conference call Monday, the only thing they really know for sure is that it'll be a long time before baseball will be played. Their options will continue to be shaped by world and national events, but given the current state of the game and realities of the calendar, here are some options worth considering:

1. Major League Baseball could continue into November and December, if necessary. There have already been circumstances under which the postseason has ended in November -- such as in 2001, when 9/11 pushed back the schedule by a week, leading to the first-ever November home run, by Derek Jeter, and a walk-off Game 7 hit by Luis Gonzalez on Nov. 4.

A lot of MLB teams play in climates in which year-round play is possible, from all the teams in the South (the Astros, the Padres, the Dodgers, etc.) and even teams closer to the Canadian border with movable roofs, like the Brewers and Mariners. Other teams who don't necessarily have that luxury, such as the Rockies, Cubs, Mets, Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies, could move their games once the calendar flips to November. They could borrow other ballparks from their MLB brethren, something that has already happened in advance of hurricanes.

And teams would always have the alternative of using their spring training facilities. If the Yankees didn't want to play their home games in Houston, for example, they could always consider George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. A perfect solution? Of course not. The crowd capacity would be smaller, the angles for television broadcasts would be less than ideal.

But to repeat: At this point, it's all about making the best of a bad situation.

MLB could carry the regular season into mid-November, and then have a month of postseason play into December.

2. This would be a perfect year for MLB to identify neutral sites in the postseason, in the same way the NFL has a host city for the Super Bowl. If baseball extends its season into November, there would be natural questions about what to do if a cold-climate team like the Phillies or Rockies played deep into the postseason.

MLB could pick sites in advance. The American League Championship Series could be played in Globe Life Field, the Rangers' new ballpark in Arlington; the NLCS could be set in Arizona's Chase Field, or maybe in San Diego, or Los Angeles, or Miami. This would ensure that the most important games in this unusual season would be played in ideal conditions -- and would be a nice test-run for MLB to weigh the pros and cons of using a neutral site in the postseason.

3. Whenever the season is jump-started, the Players Association and MLB could present a refreshed product, informed by the incredible success of All-Access Week. Players could wear mics on the field, in the dugouts, in the bullpens, reaching fans like never before -- a new and improved experience for consumers who will be looking for nice distractions after a national crisis.