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Coronavirus and Sports

CDC Recommendation On Virus Puts MLB Opening Day Into Flux

Two MLB execs said that there is a "real possibility" the season "could be delayed until Memorial Day weekend -- or even longer" -- in the wake of the CDC's recommendation yesterday to address the coronavirus outbreak, according to Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY. No one "knows when MLB will be able to begin" this season, but "certainly, playing a 162-game schedule starting on April 9 is completely unrealistic." All that is known is that MLB is "shutting down until further notice, which likely will require at least another two weeks of spring-training, pushing back the season much longer than MLB initially anticipated" (USA TODAY, 3/16). In Chicago, Tim Stebbins noted based on the CDC’s recommendation, the earliest Opening Day "can happen is May 10, and that’s from an optimistic standpoint." Even if MLB returns then, the league will have to "institute a second spring training," which "could put Opening Day somewhere around late-May or early-June." Stebbins reported MLB has a "conference call with all 30 teams scheduled" for today at 12:00pm ET to "map out the league’s next steps" (NBCSPORTSCHICAGO.com, 3/15). On Long Island, David Lennon wonders, "So where do we even go from there? Memorial Day? July 4?" Lennon: "Everything is on the table, and MLB is painfully aware of that" (NEWSDAY, 3/16). In Chicago, Gordon Wittenmyer wrote, "You can bank on this: Nobody’s going to schedule Game 7 of the World Series for Thanksgiving" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 3/15).

TRAINING DAYS: ESPN.com's Buster Olney noted if the "go date is at the end of May -- say, Memorial Day weekend -- then the second spring training might require a little more time." If there is no baseball throughout April, some club officials said that starting pitchers will "need the time to rebuild their pitch counts, just as they do when they come back from injuries." If MLB does not resume until the middle of the summer, some staffers said that "something close to a month of second spring training will be required to get the pitchers up to speed" (ESPN.com, 3/15). In Detroit, Chris McCosky reported in "all likelihood, there will be some type of mini-spring training prior to the start of the regular season. ... Whenever that might be." Tigers Exec VP & GM Al Avila said, “I don’t even know if [MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred] could answer that, to tell you the truth. But I would anticipate it would take longer than two weeks" (DETROIT NEWS, 3/15).

FURTHER REACTION: In Boston, Steve Hewitt reports MLB yesterday issued a memo to all 30 clubs with "updated guidelines that includes a strong recommendation to stop organized team workouts and practice social distancing." The memo came as a player in the Yankees' farm system "reportedly tested positive for coronavirus, the first known case in baseball." The Yankees said that the player, whose name was not released, has "just been reporting to the team’s minor league’s facility and has not been in contact with anyone in its major league facility." The memo issued yesterday said that 40-man roster players "must still be allowed to stay at their team’s spring training site, 'but we anticipate that may change in the coming days as events continue to unfold and players become better educated about current conditions.'" The memo also said that all non-roster players were "recommended to return home to their offseason residences." Hewitt notes the clubs were "told to work with the players to find suitable accommodations if leaving wasn’t feasible" (BOSTON HERALD, 3/16). In N.Y., Kevin Kernan writes MLB "finally hit the common sense button" yesterday and "proclaimed camps will cease having informal group workouts" (N.Y. POST, 3/16). On Long Island, David Lennon writes MLB has been "adapting to the coronavirus threat on the fly, and the positive test for the minor-leaguer was a wake-up call that stricter measures are needed" (NEWSDAY, 3/16).

CLUBS' PLANS: The Yankees initially had said that they "would stay unified and work out regularly as a team in an unofficial capacity." But in N.Y., Joel Sherman cites a source as saying that the "reality of less ability to work out in groups starting Sunday and that the season could be months rather than weeks away from restarting has shifted the thinking of many of the Yankees who do not reside in the Tampa area" (N.Y. POST, 3/16). In Houston, Chandler Rome reports a group of Astros will "remain in Florida to train while another will return to Houston and prepare for the upcoming season at Minute Maid Park" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 3/16). In Ft. Worth, Jeff Wilson reports the Rangers "took the suggestion to heart, closing camp and sending players on their way." Rangers President of Baseball Operations & GM Jon Daniels said that "most players elected to go home, but a group of 15 to 20 are DFW-bound" (Ft. Worth STAR-TELEGRAM, 3/16). On Long Island, Tim Healey reports on the minor-league side, the Mets "closed camp, sending most of the 200-plus players there home." A Mets spokesperson said that the club is "paying for those players’ travel home." Healey reports the players also will "receive their daily allowance through the original end of spring training (early April)." It is "not clear, however, if minor-leaguers still will be given their salaries" after then (NEWSDAY, 3/16). Before MLB's memo was sent out, agent Scott Boras had said that MLBers "would be best served staying and working out at teams’ spring training sites rather than traveling home." He said that the "'semi-isolation' and daily health care made available by teams are the best atmosphere to avoid contracting the virus." But he also "reasoned that if a player does catch the virus, he also would be in the best place to recover" (N.Y. POST, 3/14).

STATE OF EMERGENCY: THE ATHLETIC's Rosenthal & Drellich reported the reason MLB "might avoid paying players in full while games are not played" is that President Trump "invoked the Stafford Act, placing the country into a state of emergency Friday afternoon." On Thursday, when Manfred announced that this season would be delayed, the first sentence of his statement "included the phrase 'national emergency.'" A clause in every major-league player’s contract -- and also included in the MLB CBA -- "gives the commissioner the right 'to suspend the operation of this contract during any national emergency during which Major League Baseball is not played.'" If Trump "had not acted," the MLBPA "might have argued that Manfred could not invoke a national emergency on his own." A source said that while Trump’s decision "appears to give MLB the right to withhold pay, Manfred is not inclined to take such a hard-line position." Rosenthal & Drellich reported one possibility under discussion is the owners "advancing players some" of their '20 salaries. Major leaguers are "not paid until a season begins, going through spring training on a healthy per diem" (THEATHLETIC.com, 3/14).

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