Report: MLB Weighing Contingency Plans for Mets-Braves Series Due to Hurricane Ian

Major League Baseball is reportedly in talks with the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets about "contingency plans" for their weekend series as Hurricane Ian impacts the southeast.

The Braves and Mets, who are tied for the NL East division lead with seven games left in the regular season, are scheduled to play a three-game series at Truist Park in Atlanta beginning Friday.

Anthony DiComo of MLB.com reported Tuesday that early discussions centered around moving Friday's game from the night to the afternoon and potentially playing a split doubleheader Sunday.

The league hasn't yet considered a neutral-site series, which would take away the Braves' home-field advantage and cost the franchise revenue, or moving the start of the series to Thursday despite a mutual day off, per DiComo.

"We know what's going on," Mets manager Buck Showalter said. "I really don't want to put a focus on that, because our guys have done a great job of staying on task."

Saturday looks like the biggest point of concern for the remnants of Hurricane Ian hitting Atlanta. The Weather Channel forecast calls for late-day showers Friday and improved conditions Sunday, but a strong chance of all-day rain on Saturday.

If the teams aren't able to play part of the series this weekend, the only option would be tacking the games on to the end of the regular season, which wraps up Oct. 5. That isn't ideal because either the Braves or Mets are heading to the wild-card playoff round once they don't win the division.

One scenario could be playing a doubleheader Oct. 6 to decide the NL East and then moving straight to the wild-card round Oct. 7, which is obviously a major concern in terms of lining up starting pitchers.

So MLB will likely try everything possible to get all three games in at some point this weekend to avoid putting either team at a competitive disadvantage for the playoffs.

An initial decision about how to initially alter the schedule may not come until Friday morning, according to DiComo.

New York led the NL East by as much as 10.5 games in early June as Atlanta, the reigning World Series champions, got off to an ice-cold start.

The Braves have posted MLB's best record since June 1 (74-31), however, to fight back into a tie at 97-58 heading into the final stretch of the campaign.

It's a race that will significantly impact both teams' championship chances because the division winner gets the No. 2 NL seed and a bye, while the other club will need to survive a three-game wild-card series and then face the top-seeded Los Angeles Dodgers in the second round if they advance.

Meanwhile, CNN noted Hurricane Ian was close to Category 5 status as of Wednesday morning as it moved close to Florida's west coast.