COVID-19 Roundup: Shortened Seasons

This is the second installment of a daily series in which the FanGraphs staff rounds up the latest developments regarding the COVID-19 virus’ effect on baseball.

Given the speed with which national guidelines on COVID-19 are changing, you could be forgiven for not keeping up with its implications for baseball. Since last Friday, the CDC has recommended avoiding gatherings of 50 or more people for the next eight weeks and the White House asked the country to avoid groups of 10 or more, keep kids home where possible, and avoid eating and drinking in public for the next 15 days.

Meanwhile, major metropolitan areas are settling in for the long haul. The Bay Area announced a Shelter In Place policy on Monday, and New York closed restaurants, bars, and schools until at least April 20; Washington state has announced similar closures of gathering places, with schools set to remain closed until at least April 24. The state of Ohio did the same on Sunday, and Oregon has already followed suit.

So what’s a roundup of baseball news items against that backdrop? It’s insignificant, really. But here we are, on a baseball website, and COVID-19 continues to affect the game. Here are the baseball-related coronavirus stories from the past day.

Baseball Won’t Start Before Mid-May, but Likely Later
When MLB initially postponed the season, they mentioned an optimistic start date of April 9. That always looked aspirational, but after the CDC’s guidance over the weekend, it went from hopeful to unrealistic. After a conference call yesterday, the league announced that the regular season would not start before the end of that eight week period:

MLB announced another delay to Opening Day. pic.twitter.com/usp0gi914d

— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) March 16, 2020

Of course, even spring training games are likely to consist of 50 or more people, and baseball will certainly need more spring games given the long layoff players are facing. That implies that June is the earliest we could see regular season games. Craig Edwards looked into what schedule lengths would make sense based on season start here.

Scouting Is Temporarily Prohibited
Not that there are many games to scout at the moment, but MLB has temporarily prohibited all forms of it. This means no workouts, no in-person visits to see someone throw, and no encouraging players to stage games or workouts teams might scout remotely. Teams have already compiled draft boards for the June draft, so this doesn’t necessarily require postponing the draft itself. But given that the season may not start until June, it’s hard to imagine the draft proceeding as scheduled. Draftees may play more after being drafted, as they won’t be dealing with fatigue from high school and college seasons, but until we know more about regular season timing, this is nothing but idle speculation.

Players Head Home
When baseball initially shut down spring training, they gave 40-man roster members the option of staying at team facilities and continuing to work out. The league is now recommending that players leave team facilities and find a place where they can stay for an extended period of time. Team facilities are still open, as mandated by the CBA. But they will provide extremely limited access, and groups may not be allowed to enter. Team-organized workouts are also prohibited.

Has Anyone Seen Andrew Yang and Jeff Sullivan in the Same Room?
The Rays are giving every minor leaguer an $800 stipend. It’s a one-time check to each player in the system, and at a time where minor leaguers face extreme financial insecurity given that they aren’t paid when the season isn’t currently going on, it’s hugely important to support those players.

$800 isn’t enough. But it’s more than $0, and hopefully more teams will follow suit. Teams have the resources to cover this expense, and the alternative of having writers scour their connections for jobs and donations to help minor leaguers is an admirable display of compassion but also a poor system for compensating the thousands of affected individualsa across the game. Brendan Gawlowski spoke with several minor leaguers about their financial concerns in light of COVID-19 for a piece that ran at FanGraphs earlier today.

Update: Per a report from Baseball America, the Dodgers, Mets, Rays, and Red Sox have all announced that they will continue to pay their minor league players the meal allowances and stipends they would normally receive in spring training. The exact amount varies by team; the Rays pay $400 a week, while the Dodgers, Mets, and Red Sox haven’t yet announced specifics.

MLB, MLBPA Donate to Food Services
The MLB and MLBPA jointly donated $1 million to Feeding America and Meals on Wheels on Monday. It’s not enough — a recurring theme in monetary responses to the ravages of COVID-19 and the associated challenges of social distancing — but every little bit counts.

If you’ll permit me a short editorial aside, I hope that this is merely the start. Whatever your views on the labor dispute in baseball, the truly vulnerable parties in this trying time aren’t union members or owners. To the extent that people in baseball are vulnerable, it’s the minor league players and facilities staff who are set for a hard time. And of course, low income and homeless people nationwide are tremendously vulnerable, as are service workers who will go unpaid with their employers closed down for the foreseeable future.

Some players have already chipped in; George Springer donated $100,000 to team employees. Alex Bregman donated food kits to the Houston Food Bank. Trevor Bauer started a fundraiser for Reds employees. It would be wonderful to see teams and team owners follow suit; thus far, the news here is mixed. The initially promising announcement by Tigers owner Ilitch Holdings doesn’t cover Comerica Park employees, only spring training workers at the team facility in Lakeland, Florida. I dearly hope that teams do more for their minor leaguers and stadium staff in the coming days.

Yankees on the Mend, Also Ailing
Every baseball story is somehow a story about the Yankees, and this is no exception. In an interview on Monday, Aaron Boone discussed the health of some ailing Bombers:

Aaron Boone told @MLBNetworkRadio that whenever Opening Day does occur, he believes Aaron Judge, James Paxton and Giancarlo Stanton could all be healthy and ready to go.

— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) March 16, 2020

With no starting date set for the season, it’s too soon to make much of this. If the season starts in the middle of May, the earliest possible date, this is marginally good news for all three players. If play starts in June or July, it’s more or less expected. And Boone’s language was carefully noncommittal, as he surely doesn’t know what will transpire. But it’s a reminder that the quarantines and self-isolation will inevitably end, and when they do, the same questions as always will be facing baseball teams: who’s healthy, how does the team look, are we making the playoffs this year? It’s a glimpse of normalcy in an extremely non-normal time.

In significantly more dour Yankees news, a second minor leaguer has tested positive for COVID-19:

The New York Yankees have informed their minor league players that another minor leaguer in the organization has tested positive for coronavirus, sources familiar with the message distributed to players tell ESPN.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 17, 2020

We don’t yet have any more information on this story, but we will update our coverage as further details emerge.

We will update stories as appropriate, and we’ll be back tomorrow with another roundup. In the meantime, please follow national, state, and local guidelines. Wash your hands, don’t touch your face, and steer clear of group gatherings. If you can stay home, please do. Above all, be safe.

This article has been updated to reflect new information about teams continuing to pay minor leaguers normal spring training allowances and stipends.