The nor’easter is coming. It’s just a matter of when it arrives.
And when it reaches the Northeast United States, it could have a major impact on the final weekend of the MLB regular season, because the Boston Red Sox are hosting the Chicago Cubs at Fenway Park.
The league already changed the schedule around. It was supposed to be one game Friday, one game Saturday and one game Sunday.
As it stands, the teams are slated to play a doubleheader on Friday and the final game of their seasons on Saturday.
Even that seems unlikely to go off unscathed, though.
There have been reports floating around that the series may eventually move to Tropicana Field, the domed home of the Tampa Bay Rays, to play whatever games can’t be played in Boston.
There’s a new development on that front late Friday morning.
Red Sox Luggage
The Red Sox arrived at Fenway Park on Friday with their luggage.
That’s what long-tenured Tampa Bay Times beat writer Marc Topkin wrote on X:
Hearing MLB is still discussing weather-related schedule changes with teams – such as potentially moving #Cubs–#RedSox game (or games) to Trop this weekend – and will make announcements when all in place.
FWIW, #RedSox players showed up at Fenway today with their luggage.— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) September 25, 2026
That’s certainly not an approach a team would take if they felt like the weather was going to make things easy.
It does suggest that the team believes there’s very little chance of getting all three games played at Fenway.
Clearly, there’s also the matter of getting out of town in time to not have travel safety impacted by the weather, too. This situation seems about as fluid as can be.
And if the Red Sox leave town, they might be gone for the start of the playoffs, too:
Chad Tracy said Red Sox players were told to pack for 11 days worth of travel.
— Gabrielle Starr (@gfstarr1) September 25, 2026
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Why Tampa Bay?
Some fans in Topkin’s replies were wondering why Tropicana Field is the choice.
The first point is simply that the Rays are on the road this weekend, playing out the rest of their season in Philadelphia (where there could also be weather concerns but evidently not to the point of Boston’s).
The second point is that it’s a neutral field. Some wondered if they could just go to Wrigley Field, but the other National League teams fighting with the Cubs in the standings wouldn’t appreciate them getting extra home games.
And then yeah — there’s a dome. The weather won’t be able to impact the ability to get these games played if they head down to St. Petersburg, Florida — which is technically where the Tampa Bay Rays play.
It would be a bizarre place to end a season, but getting the games played, and keeping people safe from the big storm, certainly seems like the best approach to take here even if it feels less than ideal.
Boston Weather Leads to Unusual Red Sox Decision