MLB: Earlier start to season a benefit for teams forced to make up postponed games

Major League Baseball has been hit with an unprecedented amount of postponements this month as winter weather continues to blanket parts of the central and northeastern parts of North America.

As of Monday afternoon, 24 games have already been postponed due to inclement weather and even the Toronto Blue Jays - who play in a stadium with a retractable roof - lost their game due to the weather after ice fell from the CN Tower and broke a hole into the roof.

While the league continues to deal with the cancellation of games and small crowds thanks in part to the miserable weather, the league does believe it is properly prepared to accommodate so many makeup games due to starting this season in March.

"The fact that we started the year earlier gives us more off-days throughout the year, so there are a lot more options for us to make days up this year," said Chris Marinak, MLB's executive vice president of strategy, technology, and innovation told Jerry Crasnick of ESPN. "Four days may seem small, but it's actually pretty significant. We're having many more options in terms of finding agreeable dates that work.

"As bad as it's been to have the number of games we've lost so far, I can't think of a game we've lost where I'm really concerned about the makeup date burdening a club or causing an issue. That's sort of the silver lining in what we've had so far."

Six games were suspended Sunday due to rain and snow.