The first changes to the major league regular-season schedule were acknowledged Wednesday.

There projects to be much more.

Trying to subdue the spread of coronavirus, Washington state governor Jay Inslee announced a restriction through March on all gatherings of more than 250 people in counties that include Seattle. Thus, rather than play in an empty stadium, the Mariners will move what were to be season-opening series against the Rangers and Twins at T-Mobile Park.

MLB officials were deliberating Wednesday where to relocate those seven games (four vs. Texas and three vs. Minnesota). The most likely scenarios are to move the series to Texas and Minnesota or to play at the Mariners’ spring training facility in Arizona.

In addition, the March 24 exhibition game between the A’s and Giants will not be contested at San Francisco’s Oracle Park.

Washington state and California are two of the areas that have had the most confirmed cases of coronavirus. But the problem with moving any series is assuming that the new location will still be viable on March 26, when the regular season is to begin. It was announced Wednesday, for example, that the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournament will be contested without crowds. And those tournaments have games all over the country.

It is beginning to feel more inevitable that MLB — which was prioritizing trying to play before crowds even if games had to be relocated — will have a hard time doing so, and that is assuming that two weeks from now simply playing remains possible.

MLB recognizes many of these decisions are out of their hands. The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, for example, is a state-owned building. Thus, if California bans large gatherings then MLB will have to audible off of that decision.

Calls between MLB’s task force on the issue and the clubs have grown more frequent. Initially, the calls were with the task force and a designated point person from each team. But with the greater likelihood of games having to be significantly changed or cancelled more and more members of organizations — think ticket sales, game operations, security, etc. — have joined the calls. Each organization is working through contingencies.

MLB is investing so much manpower on this issue that the commissioner’s ruling on the Red Sox’s alleged sign stealing from their 2018 championship season has now been pushed back to at least next week.