Call it wishful thinking or whatever you’d like but Major League Baseball has still got to put this information out there in case everything ends up working out and all baseball activities start on schedule. As such, the spring training schedule has been released and we now know the date to look forward to hearing the crack of the bat and baseballs hitting mitts once again.
Atlanta will open up their spring training schedule on Friday, February 19 in Sarasota against the Baltimore Orioles and then
after taking on the New York Yankees in Tampa on February 20, the Braves will play their spring training home opener at CoolToday Park on February 21 against the St. Louis Cardinals.
From that point forward, the Braves are scheduled to play 30 spring games with the finale taking place at home on March 21 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Once that game is done, they’ll pack up the trucks to head back up to Cobb County and then hop on a jet out to Los Angeles to take on the Dodgers for Opening Day on March 25.
As of right now, the Braves will be playing all of their games at the usual spring training ballparks but also, MLB has noted that there will be a handful of spring training contests played in some big league ballparks near the tail end of spring training. Here’s more from MLB’s press release:
A number of exhibition games from Saturday, March 20th-Tuesday, March 23rd will be played at Major and Minor League ballparks. The scheduled meetings thus far include the Toronto Blue Jays visiting the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg on March 20th; the Detroit Tigers visiting the Rays at Tropicana Field on March 21st and March 23rd; the San Francisco Giants visiting the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento on March 21st; the Los Angeles Dodgers hosting the Los Angeles Angels at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on March 21st; the Baltimore Orioles hosting the Washington Nationals at Camden Yards in Baltimore on March 21st; the Nationals hosting the Orioles at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. on March 22nd; the Angels hosting the Dodgers at Angel Stadium in Anaheim on March 22nd-23rd; the Giants hosting the Boston Red Sox at Oracle Park in San Francisco on March 22nd-23rd; and the Houston Astros hosting the Triple-A Sugar Land Space Cowboys at Daikin Park in Houston on March 22nd-23rd. Additional exhibition games at Major and Minor League ballparks are expected to be added in the coming months.
Again this is all very much subject to change, especially with the looming labor war on the offseason horizon. While I’d guess that both sides might decide tat the potential of losing regular season games may be too painful to bear, I could see spring training being truncated a bit if any potential lockout ends up lasting throughout the offseason.
Hopefully that isn’t the case and that we’ll see all of these games played as schedule. Hopefully all of the ballpark workers and staff will be able to get a full season (and spring training)’s amount of games in, since those are the folks who get hurt the most by this type of thing. For now, February 19 is the date to circle as to when we’ll (hopefully) see the Braves back in action — at least as far as spring training goes.
Here’s the overall schedule. Times are to be determined:
Friday 2/19 at Orioles
Saturday 2/20 at Yankees
Sunday 2/21 vs. Cardinals
Monday 2/22 vs. Rays
Tuesday 2/23 at Pirates
Wednesday 2/24 vs. Yankees
Thursday 2/25 at Tigers
Friday 2/26 vs. Rays
Saturday 2/27 at Red Sox
Sunday 2/28 vs. Blue Jays
Monday 3/1 OFF DAY
Tuesday 3/2 vs. Mets
Wednesday 3/3 at Pirates
Thursday 3/4 at Cardinals
Friday 3/5 at Mets
Saturday 3/6 vs. Red Sox
Sunday 3/7 vs. Rays
Monday 3/8 at Twins
Tuesday 3/9 vs. Tigers
Wednesday 3/10 at Red Sox
Thursday 3/11 vs. Twins
Friday 3/12 at Rays
Saturday 3/13 vs. Orioles
Sunday 3/14 at Phillies
Monday 3/15 vs. Twins
Tuesday 3/16 at Rays
Wednesday 3/17 OFF DAY
Thursday 3/18 vs. Phillies
Friday 3/19 at Blue Jays
Saturday 3/20 vs. Red Sox (SS)
Saturday 3/20 at Twins (SS)
Sunday 3/21 vs. Pirates
