TAMPA, Fla. _ Now MLB and the players just have to figure out how to play through a pandemic that continues to ravage the country. After weeks of negotiations, running down the clock on a possibly longer season, the players rejected a final proposal from the owners and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred is set to implement a coronavirus-shortened 2020 season under a previous agreement.
The league is waiting to hear back from the union if the players can report to spring training 2.0 by July 1 and if they will agree to the health and safety protocols that MLB proposed to play through the coronavirus pandemic. The league gave the players until 5 p.m. on Tuesday to reply.
Travel, even in this day and age of the virus, is the easy part. International players were deemed essential by the government, meaning they will be able to travel and enter the country without issue.
The idea of playing a season and keeping players and staff healthy is the real challenge.
The 67-page protocol proposal includes wide-reaching rules that call for "several," COVID-19 tests per week, no saunas or soaking pools in the therapy treatment rooms and no sunflower seeds or spitting on the field. Those proposals, which include closing the clubhouse to all but essential personnel, spreading lockers six feet apart and even cutting down on staff allowed around the players, were made weeks ago.
That was before it became clearer how quickly the virus can spread through a ballpark.
Just last weekend, MLB ordered spring training sites across Florida and Arizona closed. While teams had allowed players to use their facilities to work out and rehab under strict guidelines put out by the Centers for Disease Control, MLB was rocked by employees testing positive for COVID-19 at these sites. The Phillies had eight employees in Clearwater test positive and shut down their facility on Thursday, the Blue Jays shut down their complex in Dunedin also on Thursday. The Giants reportedly had a player test positive last week in Arizona.
The Yankees shut down on Friday after they had four employees test positive and did more extensive testing of people at their complexes in Tampa. It was the second time the Yankees had to deal with an outbreak. In March they had two minor league players and a worker at the complex test positive for COVID-19. They had to have their minor league players quarantine for 14 days and deep clean their two Tampa-based complexes.
The Yankees and Mets announced on Saturday that they would resume spring training back in New York.
There were 40 positive tests last week for players and staffers, according to USA Today. MLB ordered the sites closed and there was further testing done, so the numbers could rise.
The spike in confirmed positive coronavirus cases baseball is following a trend in Florida and Arizona, where the numbers show the coronavirus is spreading more rapidly after "shelter in place" orders were lifted and states rushed to reopen their economies. Florida recorded record-crushing positive numbers over the weekend. The state had a record 4,094 confirmed positive cases on Friday, blowing past the previous record of 3,822 on Thursday. Arizona health officials were issuing warnings about COVID-19 stressing the limits of their hospitals last week.
Baseball has to try and keep the virus out of their clubhouses and finish their season under the wire. Their deal with TV networks calls for the postseason to begin by October and public health experts are warning of a second wave of the pandemic in the fall.
Just last week, infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci warned baseball and other sports to finish early.
"If the question is time, I would try to keep it in the core summer months and end it not with the way we play the World Series, until the end of October when it's cold. I would avoid that," Fauci said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
