Drayer: Is reported MLB plan to play season in Arizona possible?
Apr 7, 2020, 10:34 AM
A reported idea is for all 30 MLB teams to begin the season in Arizona. (AP)
(AP)
Will we see all 30 teams playing baseball in Arizona this summer? According to a Monday night report by ESPN’s Jeff Passan, that is the plan that MLB and the MLBPA is currently focused on.
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The plan reportedly has the support of “high-ranking federal public health officials who believe the league can safely operate amid the coronavirus pandemic” and that spring training could resume as soon as May with games to follow soon after.
Tuesday morning in a press release, MLB tempered that report with the following statement:
“MLB has been actively considering numerous contingency plans that would allow play to commence once the public health situation has improved to the point that it is safe to do so. While we have discussed the idea of staging games at one location as one potential option, we have not settled on that option or developed a detailed plan. While we continue to interact regularly with governmental and public health officials, we have not sought or received approval of any plan from federal, state and local officials, or the Players Association. The health and safety of our employees, players, fans and the public at large are paramount, and we are not ready at this time to endorse any particular format for staging games in light of the rapidly changing public health situation caused by the coronavirus.”
Options are being discussed and by all accounts both MLB and the MLBPA remain committed to playing as many games as possible in 2020. The “as possible” remains the question mark. The plan outlined by Passan would be to essentially put baseball in a bubble, keeping the public safe by not allowing them into the bubble and taking every possible precaution to mitigate the risks for those inside. It would involve massive testing for the coronavirus and isolating all involved at hotels without their families.
Games would be played in the 10 Arizona spring training parks and at the Diamondbacks’ home park, Chase Field, where daily triple headers could take place. Something to take into consideration will be the Arizona temperatures that time of year. While games could be played in any day part, it will still be hotter than MLB players are accustomed to.
The obstacles are almost too many to count. First, foremost and obviously, the virus itself. What path will it take the next two months in Arizona? Will MLB be able to get the proper clearance to even attempt the plan. Will the players agree to return to games that will require them to be away from their families and isolate completely except for when they are at the field? How will they accommodate the 15 Grapefruit League teams? They have to get ready for the season somewhere.
It would be an enormous undertaking but one that is apparently on the table for now. A lot would have to happen – and not happen – to get the plan off the table and put into motion. Is it a Hail Mary of an idea or something that MLB will move forward with until it can’t? What other contingencies are being explored? How far are the players willing to go to have some sort of a season? Tough to believe that we could see all of this falling in place before May but with the alternative being no baseball, a story certainly worth following.
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