With a natural disaster the scale of Hurricane Ian, baseball seems all the more trivial. Obviously, human lives take precedence.

However, there are Major League Baseball games, and those games need to be played. That is especially true for the pivotal Mets/Braves series in Atlanta.

Unfortunately, the weather is potentially going to wreck havoc with the series leaving both teams and MLB left trying to figure out how to get the games played. The first suggested option was less than inspired.

As of this minute, there's only three options currently being considered for #Mets at #Braves.

— Moving up Friday's first pitch from night to a day game.
— Possibly playing a split DH on Sunday.
— Using Oct. 6 for one or even two games to decide the NL East.

— David Lennon (@DPLennon) September 28, 2022

It’s painful that MLB can’t figure out the obvious solution to get all three games played. To do that, we need to acknowledge the following:

1. Mets and Braves do not play Thursday
2. There is no possibility for games to be played on Saturday.
3. The postseason has to start on October 7.

Logistically speaking, you really need to know who wins the NL East and who is the Wild Card as soon as possible. The division winner receives a bye, and the other team has home field advantage in the Wild Card round.

Under no circumstances can you put the Mets and Braves in a spot where they’re killing their bullpen to win the division only to start a postseason series the following day. Moreover, you can’t have a team sitting and awaiting the results of a doubleheader to determine where they’re playing the following day (or later that evening).

Your absolute worst case scenario is playing one game on Thursday. Playing a Thursday doubleheader is completely out of the question. As a result, you need to figure out a way to play the games.

First and foremost, the Mets and Braves need to play on Thursday. Both teams will complain about losing the off day, but they’ll get that back on Saturday.

Yes, the teams have aligned their rotations just for this series. The Mets have Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, and Chris Bassitt ready. The Braves put Spencer Strider on extended rest just to pitch in this series.

Playing Thursday will force a pitcher on short rest or pitch a starter they don’t want to pitch. Believe it or not, this is preferable to the alternative.

Neither team wants to use an ace right before a postseason series, and they don’t want to push their top bullpen guys. That goes double if there’s a doubleheader.

If they schedule a game on Thursday, they get at least one game in. If the Friday game from an evening game to a day game, they likely get both games in. This would completely take the doubleheader out of the equation.

After that, you know you’re not playing Saturday. Chances are, you’re not playing Sunday afternoon. Fortunately, this is the ESPN Sunday Night game. As a result, we should see this game played.

This is how you get all the games played and avoid playing October 6. Really, this is MLB’s best option. Arguably, it’s their only option.

Hopefully, this is how MLB will proceed. Mostly, we all hope and pray for those people who will be directly impacted by Hurricane Ian.