2:49pm: The league is providing players with three options, per Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post (Twitter links). They can go to their personal homes, which is the apparent preference of the league, though there’s a warning there for players who reside in other countries owing to potential travel restrictions. Players can instead remain in camp facilities and continue to receive living allowances. Or they may go to the home city of their particular club.
2:32pm: Major League Baseball, which is holding ongoing discussions with the players’ association even now, has advised players to leave Spring Training facilities for their homes. Jon Heyman of MLB Network first tweeted the news; multiple other reports have emerged indicating that players have been encouraged by their respective teams to depart.
This reverses the general direction of expectations from earlier in the day. Multiple team leaders had indicated to reporters that they expected to keep players at their spring facilities for at least the foreseeable several days. Even with spring contests scratched, there was evidently some thought given to keeping players around to continue training.
Precisely what precipitated this approach isn’t yet known, but it surely did not make much sense to keep players gathered if a lengthy delay is inevitable. Maintaining the health and safety of players and employees is surely the top priority as the league seeks to play its part in stemming the spread of the coronavirus.
There is an obvious desire not to delay the start of the upcoming season longer than necessary. To this point, the league has not formally announced an expansion of its previously announced two-week delay. But fully breaking up spring camp makes that a mere formality.
Both major and minor-league players will be sent out of team facilities. Just when they will return is anyone’s guess, but it seems clear at this point that some kind of additional spring training ramp-up will be required before the 2020 season gets underway.
Finally Manfred does something right.
minor league players are still not being paid a penny.
None of their seasons have started yet so I can agree with that
i hope the teams are feeding them well. that’s the least they can do.
Minor league guys are also paying rent on apartments in Phoenix and Florida so they can go to camp and not get paid.
manfred ain’t doin right. sending 1000+ to airports
as compared to paying rent for apartments wherever else they live?
In addition to maintaining a home wherever they live in the off-season.
It’s doubtful that players are renting apartments for spring training. Most apartments in the Phoenix Metro area require lease or a very high premium for short term and good luck finding those when the snow birds are in town. Most players are staying in Hotels that charge an arm and a leg this time of year.. Hotels charge double or more in February and March. A room that might cost $65.00 t0 $120.00 a night under normal circumstances cost around $145..00 to $240.00 now.
@Vizonaire yep minor leaguers don’t really make much, but you got major leaguers who are being paid over 20 million a year for less than 1.0 WAR of production. If baseball ever gets going again if the world doesn’t fall to crap the new competitive balance agreement should be interesting to see how they are going to navigate these problems.
No. He should let them chose a 4th option…..getting rid of Manfred.
good luck to everyone who makes money off spring training. everyone keep safe and healthy.
Just going to throw a hypothetical scenario out there.
Suppose the MLB suspended it’s season for 2020. It hasn’t gotten to this but its an option on the table as I have read.
Now turn the page to 2022. Imagine the owners and MLBPA don’t come to an agreement and there is a strike that costs that season as well.
How do you think fans will react to that? Does it make fans MORE exasperated with the MLBPA and Owners not agreeing on how much of OUR money they should get?
there wolnt be a strike
I think both sides are going to have to make concessions to ensure that a strike doesn’t happen to make up for lost income. We have no idea how owners may spend during the 2020-2021 free agency period. The current CBA could be extended for an additional year.
I really don’t see how jumping to conclusions helps anything right now – plus, during the time of a global pandemic that has already cost the lives of 4,700+ people – that we know of – this is, at best, a tonedeaf response.
He’s asking a baseball hypothetical on baseball-related site. MLBTR’s whole premise is based on “jumping” to conclusions.
What if 90% of the players become flesh eating zombies? Do I have a chance to play in the MLB?
No
Can you pitch?
Sorry…this sounds insensitive, but that is not a pandemic. The CDC itself shows numbers of people daily dying due to the flu are multiple times greater than this “bug”.
I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, but the massive overreaction in this country is exactly what the Powers that be wanted to see. You always have to ask the question…”who stands to gain?”.
I just think now isn’t the time for this. We don’t know nearly enough to begin any conclusions with accuracy.
The CDC would disagree with you, btw:
statnews.com/2020/03/11/who-declares-the-coronavir…
Yes, the flu has killed more people than COVID-19, but that’s because the flu is much more widespread. Fewer people have coronavirus, and the purpose of shutting down sports and major events is to limit the virus’s spread. If we were to allow coronavirus to be as widespread as the flu, the death rate (somewhere between 2 and 3.5%) would cause deaths from flu to be an insignificant number compared to those caused by coronavirus.
So it’s not an overreaction. These precautions are taken to protect the millions of people who are especially vulnerable to COVID-19.
this may not be pandemic because u.s. government or cdc don’t even know how many are really infected. we don’t have enough test kits and in certain instances hospitals charge nearly $4,000 per test. the only way, in most states, you can get free test is really getting sick from the virus.
be careful and don’t trust everything you want to believe!
cdc may be understaffed after a number of doctors were fired a few days ago.
Exactly wiggysf
All the hobby epidemiologists coming out of the woodwork.
bro do you even coursera?
“Bro do you even coursera?”
Lol.
I love how a random website poster knows more about epidemiology than acres of MDs and PhDs who are waaaaaaaaaay smarter than he is, waaaaaay better educated than he is, and waaaaaay more experienced in the field than he is.
Never underestimate the stupidity and moorless arrogance of an AM radio talk show lister.
AM radio talk show listeners are no worse than those people who sit glued to Fox News every day, believing all the lies and garbage they spew.
This is only logical on the surface wiggysf. You claim a few things you cannot possibly know. The mortality rate of coronavirus is still a complete unknown due to inability of testing. I’d love to think those posting on this site understood statistics, SSS, and selective sampling.
2 years ago they slashed the CDCs budget and other agencies set up to monitor viruses before they got the US. I hope you’re enjoying your $200 tax cut.
If coronavirus has a fatality rate of 2% with there being maybe 8 billion people on the planet it could potentially kill 160 million people given the fact that what almost half of America’s population?
How does jumping to conclusions not help anything right now? I heard that it’s the cure to the corona virus.
@whenmattstairs. You must have jumped to the conclusion that I jumped to a conclusion. You threw out of my statement phrases like “throwing out a hypothetical scenario” and “it hasn’t gotten to this point”. I guess you just decided to respond to the statement I didnt make?
I DON’T think this scenario is likely to play out but then that is what helps create perfect storm situations.
Thank you for your common sense .
I could be wrong but we’re looking at least a month now before baseball activities can resume and a season start in May at the earliest. I don’t know how players without resources to private facilities can be expected to train.
OK. The new update makes sense.
All mlb players have agents and most all of them have sports training complexes. The ones that don’t can probably train at one of Boras’s complex. I’m sure he wouldn’t charge them much. 🙂
Smh
Really hope MLB does something for the minor league players who haven’t been paid in months and have no money to move around or even to eat. Not to mention the stadium employees who will be losing significant wages.
That will probably be up to each organization to support their players in rare times like this.
They can go to the strip joints and make it rain, or sit at home and eat like hogs and return to work 50 lbs overweight.
Pablo Sandoval will do both
Or stay in shape like they do in January and February before they report
STAY!
I really can’t see anyway that baseball can start up before May 1st and possibly later than that. This disease has already spread throughout the country so unless they shut the entire country down for a month, this is going to continue to spread and will get worse before it gets better. Grocery stores, shopping centers, restaurants, etc. are breeding grounds for COVID-19. So unfortunately, it’s going to be a long time before we get to see baseball again. Thanks, China!
Like most of your posts on this site, you’ll be wrong.
What will you do when you’re wrong? Eat your hat? Eat crow? What???!!!
moneyballer calling someone else wrong????? Lol.
The places that you mentioned REALLY are “BREEDING GROUNDS ” for SEVERAL illnesses and/or viruses EVERY DAY. Yes, COVID-19 is a serious issue but the hysteria is overwhelming. It’s like the Y2K hysteria all over again!
Still waiting for the results of the investigation into sign stealing in 2018. Maybe we’ll get that next spring?
Oh great so many narratives about the Yankees staying
New York and the Yankees lead the way. They refuse to participate in the panic and confusion. Hopefully the team, staff, executive personnel who plan to remain, will all stay safe.
NYC is close to shutting down the entire city. It’s going to be an unprecedented couple of weeks; more so than what we’ve already seen!
That’s true, which is unfortunate for residents, customers and businesses. All of whom will financially suffer for however long this lasts.
They are being smart, staying in the far less population dense area in Florida and hanging out at an isolated facility. I’d take that over the jam packed NYC all day every day.
Maybe staying out of NYC, but am pretty sure some live in areas a lot smaller than Tampa, one of the bigger cities in the South.
Think the worry is blown out of proportion. Authorities are telling people to stop going on with their normal way of life, because they may or may not be at risk. Despite the evidence that the Coronavirus poses no threat to the percentage who are young and healthy. It’s only fatal for the elderly, as well as those with underlying health issues. Such as auto-immune disorders and deficiencies. Shutting down major cities will cause more negative results than positive. The volatility on the Stock Market is a prime example.
arinyc………..
“as many as 200,000 to 2.9 million patients in the U.S. may present with COVID-19 and need a hospital bed, which would wreak havoc on the health care system.” ~ Johns Hopkins’ Clinicians’ Biosecurity News
“At best, this could be 10 times worse than a bad flu season, at worst, it could result in a pandemic that claims the lives of millions of Americans.” ~ Dr. Linda Lee, chief medical affairs and science officer at UV Angel
foxnews.com/health/coronavirus-outbreak-worst-coul…
Yep, just blown out of proportion. /s
You referenced Fox News as a source. A clearly politically biased company, which would of course present the worse case scenario, to favor their political and big pharma friends. Dozens of other medical experts, including the Director of the National Institute of Health have stated different.
arinyc………
Would you like some more sources. I am not a political person. I am a registered independent and always have been. I follow multiple sources to gain perspective so stuff your assumptions.
“Fauci said COVID-19 is at least 10 times “more lethal” than the seasonal flu, even if the mortality rate drops far below the World Health Organization’s current estimate of 3.4%.” ~ Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
cnbc.com/2020/03/11/top-federal-health-official-sa…
If you would like more simply Google “10 times worse than the flu”. It’s quite easy and non-biased which may be out of your comfort zone
nih.gov/health-information/coronavirus
“Severity
The complete clinical picture with regard to COVID-19 is not fully known. Reported illnesses have ranged from very mild (including some with no reported symptoms) to severe, including illness resulting in death. While information so far suggests that most COVID-19 illness is mild, a reportexternal icon out of China suggests serious illness occurs in 16% of cases. Older people and people of all ages with severe underlying health conditions — like heart disease, lung disease and diabetes, for example — seem to be at higher risk of developing serious COVID-19 illness.”
“Risk Assessment
Risk depends on characteristics of the virus, including how well it spreads between people; the severity of resulting illness; and the medical or other measures available to control the impact of the virus (for example, vaccines or medications that can treat the illness) and the relative success of these. In the absence of vaccine or treatment medications, nonpharmaceutical interventions become the most important response strategy. These are community interventions that can reduce the impact of disease.
The risk from COVID-19 to Americans can be broken down into risk of exposure versus risk of serious illness and death.
Risk of exposure:
The immediate risk of being exposed to this virus is still low for most Americans, but as the outbreak expands, that risk will increase. Cases of COVID-19 and instances of community spread are being reported in a growing number of states.
People in places where ongoing community spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 has been reported are at elevated risk of exposure, with the level of risk dependent on the location.
Healthcare workers caring for patients with COVID-19 are at elevated risk of exposure.
Close contacts of persons with COVID-19 also are at elevated risk of exposure.
Travelers returning from affected international locations where community spread is occurring also are at elevated risk of exposure, with level of risk dependent on where they traveled.
Risk of Severe Illness:”
Funny how you left out…..
“COVID-19 Now a Pandemic
A pandemic is a global outbreak of disease. Pandemics happen when a new virus emerges to infect people and can spread between people sustainably. Because there is little to no pre-existing immunity against the new virus, it spreads worldwide.”
“The virus that causes COVID-19 is infecting people and spreading easily from person-to-person. Cases have been detected in most countries worldwide and community spread is being detected in a growing number of countries. On March 11, the COVID-19 outbreak was characterized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO)”
As you know there is much more to this section stating just how serious this can become but then again, anyone with a brain knows that “pandemic” is nothing to be taken lightly. BTW you also skipped ……
“Situation in U.S.
Different parts of the country are seeing different levels of COVID-19 activity. The United States nationally is currently in the initiation phases, but states where community spread is occurring are in the acceleration phase. The duration and severity of each phase can vary depending on the characteristics of the virus and the public health response.” (again there is more but for the sake of brevity I didn’t copy paste and people can simply click the link you supplied.
Notice the last few words “the public health response.”……such as avoiding large gatherings or in the case of MLB all the way to Broadway Theaters, eliminate large gatherings.
Of course you can go on believing all of this to be mostly hype and repeating “It’s only fatal for the elderly, as well as those with underlying health issues” as if it’s OK for those people to needlessly die. It says more about you than anything else. For your sake I hope you are not exposed and then inadvertently pass it on to an elderly loved one. It would be hard to explain to family that “I thought It was all hype”
Have a nice day….I’m done
They will be sipping corona’s in no time!
Not sure why anyone would go to NYC over Tampa if they had a choice.
Having visited every facility in the Cactus League, most multiple times, there are huge advantages to staying put if you can afford to do so. Lots of practice fields, space, weight rooms, and a city without a major outbreak to my knowledge.
I’d imagine a large percentage of players stay.
Stanton and Cole couldn’t come up with the plane fare to get home. And their applications for SNAP are still in motion.
You may have come up with the worst joke of all time here.
This is dumb. Players need to leave camp and practice social distancing. They’re endangering everyone so they can play with balls
Players are probably more isolated at camps than in big league cities. Most facilities are really large, have a half dozen fields or so. They likely come into contact with fewer people than if they moved back to a condo in NY or any other major city.
Even the camps in Florida are largely located in smaller towns, where their paths will cross with fewer people as the go about daily life.
“as the go about daily life”
The point is (for people in cities especially) NOT to go about daily life. The point is to stay indoors and isolate.
They live in mansions, not condos, doofus. they should be self-isolating not running around like idiots for no reason.
Agreed, the players never eat, have their apartments cleaned or get a massage, neither do their teammates
There go the Yankees, making poor decisions regarding health yet again…
This is exactly why the Dodgers were complete idiots to trade for Betts. Trade away a load of prospects for a few months of Betts service meanwhile ending up with a dead arm pitcher in Price who they pay big bucks for two more years, 2021-22. If the season is cancelled then Betts will not even play a game as a Dodger LMFAO
Very weak attempt at a troll. The season definitely will not be cancelled. The Dodgers traded for 1 postseason of Betts, they were winning the west with or without him. They get a comp pick if he leaves which the Dodgers will use to recoupe part of what they traded away. Price is a good pitcher who is now healthy and excited to be out of Boston.
Why bother with the season at all. With Manfreds new playoff schedule being adopted they can just have a 30 team tourney. Manfred is completely ruining the sport.
There’s no bigger Dodger hater than me in the world but no one ever thought the season would be suspended/postponed. Never in a million years.
Price has a spotless ERA this spring with lots of K’s – not bad for a dead arm!
F the Yankees! But I respect them for being men.
wow, bold move by the Yanks here
Yankees are the epitome of a real ball player.
I’m right there with this season dragging out with a delay or two and then just cancelling at this point.
Could it have been handled better where a season start be prophylactic enough perhaps at ST facilities? I believe yes.
Where is the Red Sox investigation report? What about the other teams and those reports?
Hey, Tigers are tanking. They get the number one pick. Cancel the season and they get next years number one also.
I wouldn’t assume that if the season is cancelled, the tigers would be awarded next summers #1 pick. They would probably cancel next years draft as well.
Lol good reasoning, not like we’re winning 90 games anyway. Although in a short season scenario Tigers have a better chance
Sanitize facility, stay, train. Why would you not?? This is the most important time for players to prepare for the season and everything you need to do that, is right there! I suspect most teams will carry on with business as usual after making some common sense cleanliness measures.
The US is at least 2 months behind Europe in addressing the virus with serious measures. I don’t think you’ll see any resolution or reduction of the virus spread until July is we are lucky. We’re kidding ourselves by pushing back the season a couple of weeks
would think staying in camp would be the safest move for the players and staff. The public is being kept out and also the media so nothing is coming in and unless a player comes down with the virus in camp I think its like a self imposed quarantine. Send them home and they are in contact with everyone (family, friends and just the public in general.
This sucks so much. We have to wait til memorial day for baseball?
The other thread apparently was locked for some reason
So much overreaction over this s***