Dan Szymborski: Welcome to SzymChat where the only thing contagious is friendship! And maybe chickenpox.

Outta my way, Gyorkass: Let’s start with the obvious one: Will there be baseball on March 26th?

Dan Szymborski: No

jz: dan,

Dan Szymborski: I haven’t even DONE anything yet.

Outta my way, Gyorkass: Will players be paid their full salaries this season if games do get cancelled, or if they only play, say, 120 games, will players only get paid 120/162 of their salary?

Jay Jaffe: Hey folks, sorry for the delay, which will extend just a few more minutes. I just filed a piece on the Astros’ rotation question marks behind Justin Verlander, who left yesterday’s start with a triceps complaint. Let me get situated and I’ll begin tackling the questions.

Jay Jaffe: OK, i’m back. White knuckle Monday morning spilling into afternoon, but lunch (sushi) is on the way and so are some answers.

Dave: Congrats on your promotion to EIC! What big, sweeping changes will rock the site under your rule?

Jay Jaffe: LOL I was misidentified as the EIC this morning in a tweet promoting my appearance on Chicago’s 670 The Score, but co-host Connor McKnight set the record straight:

Dave Kingman: Are you worried about Verlander (scale of 1-10)?

Jay Jaffe: i’d say maybe 3-4 on a scale of 10. The comparison has been made to his 2015 absence, which lasted into mid-June, but the Tigers appear to have mishandled the initial diagnosis and he also strained a lat during rehab. If I’m throwing out a wild guess before the MRI results come in, I think this points to him starting the season on the injured list but returning by mid- to late April.

Eric A Longenhagen: Morning from Tempe. I’m gonna keep it tight to the hour today so I can, among other things, watch Kiley on today’s ESPN spring training broadcast.

Brendon: Looking forward to the Jays list! What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned after making calls about the system?

Eric A Longenhagen: That aside from Pearson, Roither Hernandez is the hardest-throwing dude in the system.

Vslyke: Curious why Nick Green didn’t make the Yankees list? Not a great 2019, but he was a guy FG had been fairly high on at one time.

Eric A Longenhagen: Could’ve been a 35. Like the ground ball-getting stuff, but two years of command regression on a 24y/o isn’t great

Alan: Likelihood that Franklin Perez debuts in DET this season?

Meg Rowley: Hello all, and welcome to the chat

Meg Rowley: Hope everyone is having a good week amongst all the stressful Real World things – a few baseball-related distractions:

Meg Rowley: Jay wrote about Cole Hamels and the Braves rotation: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/cole-hamels-cranky-shoulder-will-test-brav…

Meg Rowley: Craig has a double feature. First, on the Mets’ outfield situation: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-cardinals-messy-outfield-situation/

Meg Rowley: then on the injuries befalling the AL East: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/injuries-are-throwing-the-al-east-for-a-lo…

Meg Rowley: Also, yesterday Ben Clemens took a look at the dramatic spin spike Trevor Bauer saw last September: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/trevor-bauer-might-have-conducted-another-…

Eric A Longenhagen: Good morning, everyone. Let me tweet a chat link and we’ll get started.

Eric A Longenhagen: Alrighty then

Eric A Longenhagen: Let’s do some links…

Eric A Longenhagen: I was on the inaugural Keith Law Show over on The Athletic which they somehow cut down to 40 minutes. https://theathletic.com/podcast/168-the-keith-law-show/

Eric A Longenhagen: I did FanGraphs audio https://blogs.fangraphs.com/fangraphs-audio-a-dispatch-from-prospect-w…

Eric A Longenhagen: There are two new lists which can be accessed via the prospects homepage https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects