Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto: Momentum building toward returning to play

On Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto’s weekly show on 710 ESPN Seattle, he echoed the theme that we heard starting Monday with an article from ESPN’s Jeff Passan, that the feeling around the game is there will be baseball in 2020.

Mariners notebook: Update on the status of MLB in 2020

While acknowledging that to the best of his knowledge no plan has yet been shared with any of the 30 MLB teams, Dipoto shared optimism that the likelihood of baseball in 2020 is trending up.

“There are so many different discussions happening around our reentry or reopening of the baseball season, the one thing I can say with certainty is what we are hearing is a renewed or I guess more optimistic view of the short and midterm,” Dipoto told Danny and Gallant.

For weeks, a scenario of baseball starting in Arizona in a ‘biodome’ or ‘bubble’ with players being sequestered in hotels and games played in empty stadiums has been floated, and more recently the possibility of baseball being played in three leagues across three states has also been considered. From what Dipoto said Thursday, talks may be headed in a different direction, however.

“In the last week, last 10 days there has been a lot more optimism and momentum toward the idea of returning to play and frankly we are all itching to do it,” he said. “Frankly the fact that there are more discussions that appear to be leaning toward returning to play and playing in our home ballparks is equally exciting and not because it gets baseball back on the field but also because it gives us some sense that we are getting closer to returning to normalcy.”

Whether or not returning to home ballparks means at the beginning of the season or if that is something they will work toward as different states allow remains to be seen. The only thing we know for certain at this point is that the talks to start the season are ongoing and multiple scenarios to do so are being investigated. This is all being carried out by MLB, and at some point the MLBPA, which will need to sign off on any plan, will have to be brought in. The hows, the wheres and the what will they be paids have yet to be determined or signed off on.

For now it appears we have optimism from teams which in this day, in this situation, is something.

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