2 Cubs Employees Tested Positive for Coronavirus Earlier This Month, Team Says

Two employees of the Chicago Cubs tested positive for the novel coronavirus after attending a training session at Wrigley Field in early March, the team confirmed Sunday.

According to a team spokesman, the two individuals participated in a March 8 training session in the premier seating clubs inside the stadium. The positive tests were not returned until last week, more than two weeks after the workshop.

According to the team, both employees were offered support from the Cubs after the positive tests.

Former MLB All-Star Jim Edmonds hospitalized, being tested for coronavirus

St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer Jim Edmonds has been hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms and is being tested for coronavirus.

The four-time All-Star shared his experience Saturday on Instagram and wrote: “Held off as long as I could. I thought I was tough enough to get through.”

He has not posted an update on the results of his test.

A’s minor league coach Webster Garrison tests positive for coronavirus

The coronavirus has touched the A’s organization.

A’s minor league coach Webster Garrison has contracted COVID-19 and is on a ventilator, his fiancé Nikki Trudeaux said in a social media post Friday.

On Saturday, Trudeaux posted an update on Garrison’s condition, stating that he hasn’t suffered any setbacks.

Jason Epstein: On Opening Day, Baseball Fans Pull Up A Chair And Wait

I asked Dan Szymborski, the creator of the ZiPS player projection system and a senior writer for Fangraphs, what we should expect from fans when baseball finally resumes. It increasingly appears we’ll get something approximating a 81-game regular season as the 2020 best-case scenario. Who knows if and when fans will be permitted to cheer on their favorite teams in person?

Nonetheless, he’s upbeat: “[P]eople will likely be eager for anything that resembles a return to normalcy. The damage to the economy plus lingering COVID-19 worries will probably dampen attendance from what it could be, but television interest and general interest will likely be high.”

Szymborski may be right. But that’s then. What about now? Vin Scully, arguably the greatest play-by-play man of all time, enjoyed greeting his television and radio audiences with an inviting, “Pull up a chair and spend part of your Saturday (or whatever the day was) with us.”

Today, we fans — hardcore and casual alike — will pull up a chair. But there will be no Max Scherzer. There will be no Jacob deGrom. Instead, we’ll sit dejected in our bathrobes and nightgowns, waiting for a season that may never come.

Happy Opening Day.

Scott Boras pitches 162-game MLB schedule with a World Series game on Christmas

There is a growing sense among baseball executives that a best-case scenario for the sport would be an 81-game regular season beginning around July 1 and a postseason in October. There is also a fear among some that the 2020 season might be canceled in its entirety.

Boras is more optimistic. He believes a June start is “well within the vision of what could be,” and said he has submitted proposals to Major League Baseball for a 162-game season that would begin June 1 and a 144-game season that would start July 1.

Both feature a playoff schedule that would run Dec. 3-26, complete with wild-card games, five-game division series, seven-game championship series and a seven-game World Series. Postseason games would be played in eight domed stadiums and three Southern California stadiums.

“We have it all mapped out,” Boras said. “It’s workable. We’ve done climate studies, and in Southern California, the average temperature in December is 67 degrees, which is better than late March and early April in most cities. We have 11 stadiums we could play postseason games in. I’m gonna get my neutral-site World Series after all.”

AP sources: MLB could skip draft; service time big issue

Major League Baseball is considering skipping its amateur draft this year and putting off the next international signing period as a way to preserve cash while games are affected by the new coronavirus, people familiar with the discussions told The Associated Press.

Talks between management and the players’ association are ongoing and include the contentious issue of major league service time, which determines eligibility for free agency and salary arbitration. MLB has proposed crediting full service for 130 games or more and proportional service for a shorter season, the people said on condition of anonymity because those details have not been made public.

Olney: Six creative ways MLB can make the best of a tough situation

1. Major League Baseball could continue into November and December, if necessary. There have already been circumstances under which the postseason has ended in November—such as in 2001, when 9/11 pushed back the schedule by a week, leading to the first-ever November home run, by Derek Jeter, and a walk-off Game 7 hit by Luis Gonzalez on Nov. 4.

A lot of MLB teams play in climates in which year-round play is possible, from all the teams in the South (the Astros, the Padres, the Dodgers, etc.) and even teams closer to the Canadian border with movable roofs, like the Brewers and Mariners. Other teams who don’t necessarily have that luxury, such as the Rockies, Cubs, Mets, Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies, could move their games once the calendar flips to November. They could borrow other ballparks from their MLB brethren, something that has already happened in advance of hurricanes.

And teams would always have the alternative of using their spring training facilities. If the Yankees didn’t want to play their home games in Houston, for example, they could always consider George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. A perfect solution? Of course not. The crowd capacity would be smaller, the angles for television broadcasts would be less than ideal.

Will MLB Turn to Expansion After Losing Revenues to COVID-19?

Over the last several decades, revenues for Major League Baseball have soared, nearing $11 billion last season. The league’s unprecedented prosperity has turned MLB franchises into cash cows in ways not seen in prior generations. It will likely take some time to gauge the extent of the revenue teams will lose due to COVID-19-related delays, but given that some or perhaps all of the 2020 season will be lost, baseball isn’t likely to be a great moneymaker for owners this year. And while league expansion has been talked about for quite some time, it’s possible the losses suffered this season due might actually be the precipitating factor in MLB moving beyond 30 teams.

For the last few decades, owners haven’t felt compelled to expand because they were making plenty of money without the need for a cash grab. The dirty truth about expansion is that it isn’t about growing the sport. It’s about injecting cash into ownership pockets now, with those same owners willing to share a slice of their pie with a couple more teams in the future. If the owners don’t feel the need for that expansion money, they aren’t going to welcome more teams to take a share of overall MLB revenues. In addition, the threat of relocation from teams looking for new stadium deals serves to slow expansion; MLB likes to have potential expansion cities available to threaten municipalities into providing new ballparks.

Modern expansion isn’t about the talent levels available or growing to meet the needs of an increasing population. If it were, we would have seen expansion at some point in the last decade. The talent pool has gotten incredibly good, with fastball velocities and strikeout levels rising to the point that diluting the talent pool could have a positive impact on the game, resulting in more action and balls in play. And in terms of population, the number of people per team is approaching levels last seen in 1960 when baseball had just 16 teams.

The sound you are hearing are a bunch of local politicians across North American getting really excited and a bunch of economists sighing in response…..

Japanese baseball players test positive for coronavirus

TOKYO (AP) — Hanshin Tigers pitcher Shintaro Fujinami and two teammates have become the first professional baseball players in Japan to test positive for the new coronavirus.

Fujinami was examined at a hospital on Tuesday and Wednesday, and a doctor recommended he have a test. Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported Friday that the result was positive.

The 25-year-old right-hander reported losing his sense of smell, although he exhibited no other symptoms before the test.

After checking the pitcher’s activities over the past two weeks, it was determined that two other players who dined with Fujinami reported a diminished sense of taste. They also tested positive, according to national broadcaster NHK.

MLB jerseys to be made into masks for medical workers fighting coronavirus

MLB team jerseys are being made into a million protective masks to support medical workers on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. The announcement was made on Thursday by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and Fanatics mogul Michael Rubin, whose apparel company makes jerseys for the league.

Rubin’s Fanatics brand is the licensed apparel partner of all major sports leagues. It makes the MLB jerseys in a 360,000-square-foot plant in Easton, Pennsylvania.

He posted on Instagram of the idea to create the masks from the same material as the authentic baseball gear: “Woke up in the middle of the night last week with idea of converting our [Fanatics] factory in PA that makes official @MLB jerseys into a facility that makes much needed masks and gowns and then donating them to help fight this horrendous virus.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and attorney general Josh Shapiro each had contacted Rubin saying they needed support in supplying medical pros.

Pete Alonso Sends Heartfelt Message to Nurses and Doctors Battling Coronavirus

Professional athletes are cheered for and loved by millions of fans around the world. They’re worshipped liked super heroes, called role models and referred to as legends.

But as we are seeing now with a global pandemic like the coronavirus virus, the sports world is put on hold and a different type of hero is brought into the limelight. The truck drivers making deliveries to the supermarket. The teachers reading stories to their students via virtual video sessions. The nurses and doctors who put their own health and safety at risk to treat the patients infected by this dangerous, highly contagious and deadly virus.

So when someone routinely referred to as a superstar, like Mets first-baseman Pete Alonso, sends individual messages to nurses and doctors thanking them for their time and effort, for saving lives and keeping people safe during this health crisis, it’s an inspiring and very big role reversal.

Judging by the reactions from the nurses and doctors, the incredibly powerful and benevolent gesture by the New York All-Star truly meant something special to those that received it. You can see it in the video and feel it in your heart. It evokes emotion, some of the medical workers even started to tear.

Ex-MLB All-Star Dan Haren to Auction off Bobbleheads for COVID-19 Relief Funds

Former MLB pitcher Dan Haren is doing what he can to help those dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Molly Knight of The Athletic, he is auctioning off some of his bobblehead collection, which includes more than 300 figurines. What’s more, he is including personalized notes about the players with each one, including a reveal he once hit Vladimir Guerrero on purpose and was caught by Albert Pujols playing Pokemon Go. 

Haren is auctioning bobbleheads such as Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Derek Jeter, Reggie Jackson, Manny Ramirez, Cy Young, Frank Thomas and Mike Piazza, among many more.

Red Sox minor leaguer tests positive for virus, complex shut

BOSTON (AP) — A minor league player for the Boston Red Sox has tested positive for the coronavirus, prompting the team to close down its training complex in Fort Myers, Florida.

The Red Sox made the announcement Tuesday, a day after the positive diagnosis. The team didn’t identify the player, but said he was doing well.

Earlier this month, the New York Yankees said two of its minor leaguers had the virus. Those were the first two players affiliated with a big league organization known to test positive.

Major League Baseball has postponed opening day until at least mid-May because of the virus outbreak.

Hoping for a Better Baseball Future

Remember when the whole world was angry at the Houston Astros for stealing signs? They wanted them to give back their World Series title, their championship rings, their postseason money.

One day in spring training, I watched the Astros play in a half-empty ballpark against the Marlins on what was senior day, sponsored by a local hospital. Even then, the fans were all over José Altuve, Carlos Correa and George Springer: profanity, snark, outrage. It seemed to me this was a mini dress rehearsal for what the Astros would face in the regular season.

That gantlet was scheduled to begin on Thursday. First in Oakland against the A’s and whistleblower Mike Fiers. Then in Anaheim against the Angels, where thousands of angry Dodgers fans had bought tickets. By June 3, the sideshow would have gone through Texas, Boston and New York, each place trying to outdo the last in terms of public outrage–or just trying to do something that goes viral.

And then, the pandemic happened.

Drive-thru COVID-19 testing site coming to Marlins Park in Miami

MIAMI – A new drive-thru testing site for COVID-19 is coming to Miami.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Gimenez said Sunday that he is working with Jackson Health Systems, the City of Miami, the University of Miami and the Miami Marlins to bring a free, drive-thru testing site to Marlins Park.

According to the mayor, there will be a hotline for people to call and make appointments at the site.

Additional details will be available on Monday, Gimenez said. He is currently finalizing details on when the site will be opened.

Baseball fix: Recent classic games to watch during the coronavirus shutdown

With baseball delayed indefinitely, and people around the world working from home to stem the spread of the coronavirus, entertainment options are a must. Major League Baseball’s 2020 season isn’t coming Thursday, as originally planned. We don’t know when or if it will arrive, really, and we certainly don’t know what it will look like if it does.

But we know the familiar daily comforts and thrills that usually come with spring are missing. Television networks, including MLB Network (which will show the famous 1978 Bucky Dent game several times on Saturday), are providing some access to old favorites, but the more choices the better.

We assembled a list of instant classics — regular season games of recent vintage, in this first edition — that you can watch on YouTube or with that MLB.TV subscription you had already bought in anticipation of your team’s upcoming season.

So, what games from 2018 and 2019 would you chose for the rest of us to watch?

Coronavirus Pandemic Creates ‘Disaster Situation’ For Some MiLB Teams

This past offseason was considered to be the toughest most Minor League Baseball teams had ever faced. Roughly a quarter of all MiLB teams were on the chopping block in an MLB proposal that headlined negotiations between MLB and MiLB on a new Professional Baseball Agreement for 2021 and beyond.

Those issues, while still significant, have faded into the background. They have quickly been replaced at the forefront by the novel coronavirus outbreak, which has quickly waylaid MiLB’s (and all of sports) 2020 season plans.

The PBA negotiations have been paused by both sides as they work to figure out how to adjust, adapt and answer the many questions raised by the suspension of the season.

As of mid-March, the long-term effects health-wise of COVID-19 in the U.S. are not yet apparent. MiLB owners and operators all speak of their concerns for the actual health of their communities. But while that is seen as a future unknown, the financial ramifications are already becoming quite clear.

‘I’m Just Stuck’: Coronavirus Leaves Foreign Minor Leaguers Stranded

Donny Breek awoke in his room at the Minnesota Twins Player Development Academy around 10 a.m. on Wednesday, a late hour that would have felt like a rare luxury just last week, when spring training was still on and early workouts were daily.

Now, camp is closed due to the coronavirus outbreak. All of the Twins’ minor-league players have been sent home—all, that is, but Breek, who is from the Netherlands, and a handful of others. This tiny set of foreign players have been moved to the Twins’ Academy in Fort Myers, Fla. They cannot travel home; they are not able to hold workouts; they cannot play baseball. Instead, they do what they can to fill their days on their own.

On Wednesday, Breek showered and went down to the cafeteria for breakfast, where he could see his few teammates left in town. There are roughly a dozen of them: German, Russian, Venezuelan. The last Americans—a few who had been held back for injury rehab when the others were sent home last week—finally left this morning. The rest of the day? There are no team activities. There are no activities, period.

“I feel fine,” 20-year-old Breek says over the phone. “I’m just stuck. I can’t go anywhere.”

AP sources: MLB could skip draft; service time big issue

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball is considering skipping its amateur draft this year and putting off the next international signing period as a way to preserve cash while games are affected by the new coronavirus, people familiar with the discussions told The Associated Press.

Talks between management and the players’ association are ongoing and include the contentious issue of major league service time, which determines eligibility for free agency and salary arbitration. MLB has proposed crediting full service for 130 games or more and proportional service for a shorter season, the people said on condition of anonymity because those details have not been made public.

The union has taken the position that a full season of service should be credited even if no games are played, one of the people said.

Scheduling has been left open since there is no way to determine when the season could start.

So, what broader long-term consequences do we see as potentially coming from these actions?

‘Adopt a Minor Leaguer’ Program Gives Players a Lifeline as MLB Shuts Down

When Michael Rivers started the “Adopt a Minor Leaguer” program in February, he only planned to assist with food and cash over long seasons of low pay. Now, a month later, his work looks different—providing a lifeline to players who were sent home from camp amid a global pandemic, with no idea when they’ll receive their next paycheck, and no sense of when they’ll be allowed to return.

As the novel coronavirus outbreak has shut down baseball, MiLB players have been thrust into a difficult situation. They already face frustratingly low pay during the season and no pay at all during spring training. But now they’ve been ordered home—difficult in itself, for foreign players who worry about potential future travel restrictions—where they must remain in playing shape and figure out a way to pay their bills. With no idea of when they will be called back to camp, they can’t easily seek immediate work at home, and they can’t file for unemployment benefits while still under contract with their clubs. Teams have not stepped in to pay. So fans have answered with the ultimate modern solution: They’re crowdfunding. And, in a particularly unflattering statement on the quality of life in the minors, the crowdfunded efforts to pay players in a pandemic aren’t new. They’re the ones that already existed to pay players under previous conditions.

Rivers, 39, lives in Eagan, Minn., with his wife and two children. Before Adopt a Minor Leaguer, he had no previous involvement with baseball beyond his fandom (Twins), but after a painful winter, he was in search of anything to make him feel better. His father was diagnosed with lung cancer in November and learned that it had spread in January. In the days that followed, Rivers wanted to find a distraction. So he landed on Twitter, where he saw former Twins farmhand Todd van Steensel, now in indy ball, posting about the difficulties of his seven years in the minors.

“I started to see more about the truth about what minor leaguers don’t get paid, that they don’t get paid for spring training, and they get paid very little during the season,” says Rivers. “And at that point, I was like—giving always makes you feel better.”

MLB teams pledge $30M to help cover lost wages for ballpark employees

All 30 Major League Baseball teams on Tuesday pledged $30 million total to help cover the lost wages of ballpark employees who have been affected by the postponement of the big league season due to the coronavirus crisis.

“Motivated by desire to help some of the most valuable members of the baseball community, each Club has committed $1 million,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.

“The individual clubs will be announcing more details surrounding this support effort in their local communities. The timing of these announcements will vary because of the need to coordinate with state and local laws as well as collective bargaining obligations in an effort to maximize the benefits realized by each group of employees. I am proud that our clubs came together so quickly and uniformly to support these individuals who provide so much to the game we love.”

With Opening Day originally scheduled for March 26, teams had filled out a majority of their game-day staff, from vendors to concession workers to janitorial staff to ticket takers—many of whom are paid by the game.

How Many Games Can MLB Realistically Play in 2020?

A Memorial Day weekend start would get more than 80% of the schedule played if the regular season went until near the end of October, but it is hard to envision playing much more than that with the information we have now. There is the possibility of packing more games into the schedule by increasing the number of doubleheaders, but it’s unclear how feasible that scenario might be. While many aspects of a shortened season will need some negotiating between the players and the union, the current CBA allows for just one pre-scheduled day-night doubleheader — which allows for two games and two sets of fans in attendance — and three twi-night doubleheaders — in which two games are played, with one in the afternoon followed immediately by another at night — per season. The latter might get more games in, but isn’t especially desirable by teams, as they won’t be able to split attendance. The most feasible split doubleheader day is likely Saturday, but a night game Friday followed by a doubleheader Saturday across nine hours followed by a day game Sunday isn’t likely to go over well with the union, and could result in a decline in the quality of play due to playing four games in under 48 hours. Adding a few doubleheaders here and there is probably feasible during the summer, but packing in a dozen might be a bit much, and all without much benefit for the players, teams, or fans.

No games, no money: Coronavirus threatens workers who depend on baseball

The country as a whole is about to get a crash course in why sports are important, even amid the coronavirus pandemic. And spoiler: It’s money.

The idea that baseball, or any professional sport, is a business is said almost exclusively with derision. As an explanation for owner greed when Mookie Betts is traded or broadcast opportunities when an expanded playoff structure is floated. It explains why minor-league players are paid so little and also, frankly, why stars in the bigs are paid so much.

Baseball is not a public institution but a corporate one. That’s a bummer but it’s also a welcome reality for a lot of people who find purpose and, crucially, paychecks working in sports. The reason professional game-playing holds such an esteemed place in our culture — the reason I can have a job simply opining about it — is not because it reflects something universal about the human spirit, but because it’s a multi-billion dollar industry. (Now, you could argue that the industry itself depends on something more romantic like the universal need for knowable narratives built on physical excellence, but that’s just smart business.)

From hot dog vendors to hourly broadcast support staff to freelance journalists, the existing slate of games canceled because of the coronavirus could devastate their financial situation. A longer hiatus could alter the industry entirely. That’s what’s at stake.

A consideration of those off the field affected by the current situation.

Minor-league baseball players don’t know what to do after coronavirus delays season

One of baseball’s most vulnerable communities has been put in an even worse position due to the coronavirus. Minor-league baseball players have been left scrambling after the start of the Minor League Baseball season was delayed due to fears of spreading the coronavirus.

The situation is pretty dire, according to Jared Diamond of The Wall Street Journal. It’s reached a point where some international prospects have left the United States to go home because they don’t have other options. As Diamond points out, those prospects could have a hard time getting back into the United States depending on what travel restrictions are in place.

Things aren’t much better for minor-league players staying in the country. As one agent told Diamond, “Minor-league guys are screwed.”

MiLB players don’t get paid until season starts
Issues surrounding minor-league players are plentiful, but the biggest problem they face revolves around pay. The vast majority of MiLB players do not receive a living wage. Sure, there are occasional outliers who receive multimillion-dollar bonuses, but those players are generally first-round picks. Those types of deals are not common.

As always, my apologies- the article cited is behind a pay-wall for me.

CDC’s latest guidance could mean no sports for much longer

The already-delayed professional sports seasons in North America could be on hiatus for significantly longer than first planned after federal officials said Sunday that they recommend all in-person events involving 50 people or more be called off for the next eight weeks.

That’s twice as long as the 30-day shutdowns that the NBA, NHL and Major League Soccer decided to put into place last week in response to the global coronavirus pandemic that has already made a deep impact on the U.S. financial markets and has been blamed for at least 64 deaths in this country.

Major League Baseball also was going with what essentially was a 30-day shutdown after canceling the rest of spring training and pushing back the start of regular season play for two weeks; opening day was to have been March 26.

But new recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday night seem to suggest that sports in this country could for all intents and purposes be gone until May, if not later.