Washington Nationals put 10 on IL ahead of COVID-delayed season opener

The Washington Nationals finally will open their season Tuesday, but they will do so with a patchwork roster due to COVID-19 issues.

The Nats announced that starting pitchers Patrick Corbin and Jon Lester, catchers Yan Gomes and Alex Avila, first baseman Josh Bell, infielders Josh Harrison and Jordy Mercer, left fielder Kyle Schwarber and reliever Brad Hand have all been placed on the injured list, though none with a specified injury.

A coronavirus outbreak has sidelined 11 players, four of whom tested positive for COVID-19, though the team has not revealed which players tested positive and which are in protocols.

With so many players out, the Nationals recalled seven players, including shortstop Carter Kieboom, to the 26-man roster and signed 34-year-old catcher Jonathan Lucroy to a contract as part of a flurry of personnel moves.

Brad Wilkerson would listen if the Nationals called.

Texas Rangers sell over 38,000 tickets to home opener, marking one of the first full-capacity sporting events in a year

The paid attendance at Monday’s game was 38,238, a figure which Rangers spokesperson John Blake described as a sellout. The stadium’s overall capacity is 40,518, according to Blake.
The Rangers are the only Major League Baseball team allowing full capacity seating at their ballpark, thanks in part to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott doing away with mask restrictions last month and allowing businesses to open at 100% capacity.

“It felt like it was my debut all over again. It was a good feeling to just have the crowd there cheering us on,” said Rangers infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa. “I think the introduction when I first came out early in the game, that was probably one of the coolest moments of my career to this date.”
Rangers manager Chris Woodward said Monday felt like “a real game” and that it “resembled some sort of normalcy.”

“We were excited, man. We haven’t played in front of any crowd. We played a little bit in Kansas City, a little bit in spring training, but full capacity, it’s amazing how quickly we get used to certain things and not having that, was ‘Oh, this is what it felt like,’” Woodward said.

On eve of openers, Manfred hopes full capacity by midsummer

“I hope by midsummer that we have ballparks that are unrestricted and we have full fan access,” Manfred said Wednesday during an interview with The Associated Press.

Last year’s shortened regular season was played entirely without fans, who were allowed back only for the NL Championship Series and World Series, and then in limited numbers for games moved to a neutral site in Arlington, Texas.

“For most clubs, this will be another year of significant losses. It’s not going to be the $2.5 to $3 billion that we had last year, but there will be significant losses if we continue in the mode where we don’t have full fans,” Manfred said. “The clubs have done a great job of working with financial institutions they had relationships with in terms of assuring liquidity.”...

He thinks fans long to return to ballparks.

“I see this season as a huge opportunity for baseball,” he said. “We’re an outdoor sport. I think it’s safe or safer to go to outdoor activities. Everybody seems to agree on that. And I think that there’s pent-up demand for entertainment products, and we’re going to do everything we possibly can to take the best opportunity to take advantage of that.”

Five Nationals players will miss opening day after a COVID-19 positive

Despite a relatively healthy six weeks of spring training and a far smoother ride in testing for and tracing cases of COVID-19, the 2021 Major League Baseball season will begin as the last one did – with a Washington Nationals player sidelined by a positive test for their nationally televised opener.

Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo announced Wednesday that a player tested positive and will miss Thursday’s opener, as will four other players who must quarantine after they were identified as close contacts with the player.

Additionally, a staff member was also in the close contact group.

The positive tests comes after a spring in which just 33 players tested positive through both intake and monitoring testing; two players and two staff members among MLB’s 30 teams tested positive in the most recent report issued by MLB.

Major League Baseball relaxing COVID-19 protocols for fully vaccinated players, staff

Among the new and relaxed protocols:

► Players and staff members who are vaccinated no longer are required to wear masks in gatherings in hotel rooms and other indoor spaces with other fully vaccinated individuals but still must wear masks in the clubhouse and training room. Masks are not mandated in the dugout, bullpen or weight room.

► Family and household members who are vaccinated, including non-vaccinated children, are now permitted to stay with them in their hotel rooms on the road. Players also no longer are required to notified their club compliance officer when leaving the hotel

► Vaccinated individuals now have the option to decrease testing to twice a week using saliva tests.

► Fully vaccinated individuals who have been in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 no longer need to quarantine unless they have symptoms.

► Fully vaccinated individuals can carpool or use ride-sharing services to and from club facilities.

► Card playing is back on planes and buses as long as no unvaccinated individuals are within two rows of the fully vaccinated people.

► Vaccinated individuals can meet outdoors with anyone instead of just household or family members.

► Vaccinated players and staff members also are permitted to appear at in-person sponsorship or marketing events, provided that the event’s health and safety protocols are approved by the club.

► They also may now attend indoor religious services, although outdoor serves still are recommended.

► Family members and guests of players and staff are no longer required to sit in pods at games, and can mingle with other spectators.

Two Texas Rangers employees on what Opening Day at full capacity will be like

Both employees who spoke to The News are hoping for the best while bracing for the worst. They asked for no identifying information other than their roles, a request the Daily News granted because they fear retribution from the team.

“Depending on how uncooperative customers are being, you may have to get police involved,” said a veteran front-office staffer of the upcoming season. “It’s that risk assessment in your brain. And a lot of times, it’s not going to come down on the side of public safety if you’re trying to keep your people from physical harm,” they said.

Many of their colleagues — especially the senior citizens stationed around Globe Life’s escalators and vessels — were hired as greeters, but he believes they are being positioned to manage conflict like bouncers.

“At least down here, most of them are older age…they’re working games so they can have something to do, and so they can get out and socialize,” they said, comparing them to Wal-Mart staffers. “It’s not an adversarial position. That’s not why they are doing this.”

“I know exactly how it’s gonna go,” said another Globe Life Field staffer, this one in a customer-facing role. “People already weren’t wearing masks.”

Doesn’t help that their ad shows a fan taking his mask off!

Cardboard is out. Humans are in.

Single game tickets go on sale next week! pic.twitter.com/aYIvaKR2Uv

— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) March 15, 2021

Baseball scouts return to the ballpark after COVID-19 pandemic decimates industry

On the one-year anniversary after being sent home when baseball closed its doors with the COVID-19 pandemic, and being prohibited from scouting at Major League ballparks during the truncated 60-game season, they are back.

“It’s been tough, very tough,’’ said Kansas City Royals scout Jim Fregosi Jr., “emotionally and mentally. When you’re a scout, and with all of the weird hours we keep, your friends are limited. Your closest friends are scouts and others in baseball. There’s not too many of us that know how to do anything else.

“This is our livelihood, and there’s a fear there won’t be many scouts out there anymore, so being back is very emotional.’’

The scouting industry has drastically shrunk in the last year, with about 20% of professional scouts laid off since the start of the pandemic. There still are 13 teams who don’t plan to scout Major League Baseball games in person this year, even at the Class AA and Triple-A level. The guidelines distributed by MLB to clubs this week, and obtained by USA TODAY Sports, prohibit more than one scout per team at games this year, and are providing only a minimum if six scout seats behind home plate.

“It’s brutal, we feel like we’re on an island anyways, but it’s so tough to see,’’ said former major league outfielder Mitch Webster, a scout with the Royals.

“You’re still hearing about some clubs having layoffs and pay cuts even with the fans coming back.’’

Texas Rangers to allow full capacity on opening day

The Texas Rangers will be the first major professional team in North America to allow 100 percent capacity at a game when they play their home opener April 5 against the Toronto Blue Jays.

In a statement, the Rangers cited Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order permitting the state’s businesses to open fully in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Globe Life Field, which seats 40,518 fans, opened last season, but has never been allowed to have fans for a Rangers game. Major League Baseball allowed about 11,500 fans into the stadium for National League Championship Series and World Series games played at the ballpark last postseason.

The Rangers’ Globe Life Field can hold 40,518 fans.

TD Garden, Fenway Park Can Open At 12% Capacity For Fans Starting March 22

Governor Charlie Baker announced Thursday that fans will be allowed at Massachusetts stadiums and arenas beginning March 22.

Starting March 1, Massachusetts will move back into Phase 3, Step 2 of its reopening plan, then on March 22 to Step 4, Phase 1. That is when stadiums will be allowed to have crowds with a capacity restriction of 12%.

“These large venues employ a lot of people and many of them have been out of work for a very long time,” Baker said. “We’ve been watching how these venues perform in other states, and believe with the right safety measures in place they can operate responsibly and safely here in the Commonwealth as well.”

The Bruins would be the first team eligible to host fans with a home game scheduled against the New York Islanders on March 23. The Celtics’ first home game with fans could be March 29, while Red Sox opening day is scheduled for April 1.

Jose Abreu, the reigning AL MVP, tests positive for COVID-19, keeping him away from Chicago White Sox spring training

American League MVP Jose Abreu will remain away from the Chicago White Sox for the “next several days” because of a positive COVID-19 test, general manager Rick Hahn announced Wednesday.

The move, Hahn said in a statement, is in compliance with Major League Baseball intake protocols.

“Jose, who is completely asymptomatic, believes he contracted a mild case of the disease in January, which is reinforced by the presence of COVID antibodies in additional testing,” Hahn said in a statement.

“Other than being frustrated, Jose feels great and, like the rest of us, is looking forward to when he rejoins the club in the not too distant future.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci cautiously optimistic about return of fans for 2021 MLB season

Dr. Anthony Fauci is cautiously optimistic about the prospect of fans returning to the stands for the 2021 MLB season, telling ESPN’s Buster Olney there’s a “pretty good chance” of it happening if the rate of COVID-19 infections continues to drop.

“We could have a pretty good chance of having a baseball season that’s a full season,” Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight Podcast. “That we could have people in the stands, maybe not right next to each other; there are going to be public health restrictions like mask wearing and things like that.”

Fauci cautioned that fan attendance would be dependent on current trends holding and that the full impact of certain coronavirus variants remains to be seen.

Cy Young winner Shane Bieber quarantined from Indians spring training after contracting COVID-19

The Cleveland Indians are starting spring training without their ace and reigning Cy Young winner Shane Bieber after he contracted COVID-19.

Indians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti announced the news on Thursday, a day after pitchers and catchers reported to the team’s Goodyear, Arizona spring training facility. Antonetti expects Bieber to join the team soon.

Bieber expected to join team ‘within the next few days’

“He has very, very mild symptoms,” Antonetti told reporters. “In fact, they were barely noticeable, and — like I said — he’s working through the protocols to return. We expect him to get back to the complex at some point within the next few days.”

MLB’s 2021 new COVID-19 protocols are stricter – and could result in potential fines, suspensions

The protocols, according to a copy obtained by USA TODAY Sports, require players to self-quarantine at home for five days before reporting to spring training, with teams not permitted to have more than 75 players and personnel at their facilities. There will be 26-man rosters that can be expanded to 28 on Sept. 1, including a five-man taxi squad.

Once in camp, they will not be permitted to dine at indoor restaurants, go into bars or clubs, or attend indoor gatherings with more than 10 people. This includes everything from fitness centers, movie theaters and bowling alleys. Players and team personnel also are restricted from leaving the team hotel on the road except for team activities, picking up outdoor/curbside food, golf, outdoor walks and exercise.

Players also are prohibited from having guests, or even family members, inside their rooms at their team hotels. They will be permitted only to meet outdoors with family or household members or in a semi-private outdoor space at the hotel. They also are not permitted to dine in the hotel restaurant or bar.

They also are required to wear a Kinexon contract tracing device, like the NBA and NFL, permitting clubs to conduct contract tracing if a player or personnel member tests positive, while also monitoring social distancing. Players will also be subject to temperature checks and daily symptom screens will be conducted twice a day for the entire season and monthly antibody tests.

Cubs to play in front of 25% capacity at Sloan Park in spring training

It has been about 11 months since Cubs fans could watch their team in person from the stands, but they’ll get that chance again soon.

The city of Mesa, Maricopa County and the state of Arizona have given the Cubs the green light to have fans up to 25% capacity at Sloan Park for spring training games. The Cubs are hoping to put 3,500 or more fans in Sloan Park, whose 15,000-person capacity is the biggest of any team in spring training in Arizona or Florida.

COVID-19 health and safety protocols will be in place, with masks being mandatory and seating scattered in pods of two to six people sitting together. Fans will only be allowed to unmask if they’re eating or drinking in their specific seat location.

“We will have different locations and protocols regarding the selling of concessions this season,” Cubs general manager of spring training operations Justin Piper said. “Staying within guidelines for CDC protocol protection and enjoyment of the game will be our goal for our fans this spring. We submitted a plan to the governor, and it was approved with these important guidelines in place.”

Yahoo Sports Report: Biden administration officials pitch MLB on delaying season 1 month for vaccinations

Senior officials of the Biden administration spoke with MLB last week about a one-month delay for the season while getting players vaccinated in time for opening day, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal.

Rather than join the meeting, the MLB Players Association reportedly opted to schedule its own discussion with the same officials at a later date, out of concern it would be pressured to agree to the delay. The union will hear the same pitch.

Administration officials reportedly told MLB they were confident in their ability to vaccinate players in time for the delayed season due to the expected introduction of the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is expected to be filed for FDA approval within a week.

Rosenthal reports that the delay will not take place, barring the COVID-19 situation changing.

MLB proposes delaying season by a month due to COVID-19, playing 154 games with full player pay

Major League Baseball has proposed to the players’ union a 154-game season that would start a month later than scheduled, be extended by a week and come with full pay if played in its entirety, sources said Sunday.

Delivered Friday, the proposal also includes plans for an expanded postseason and a universal designated hitter.

The MLB Players Association presented the proposal to its executive subcommittee and other players over the weekend. As of Sunday afternoon the union had not responded to the league.

The union has favored starting the season on time — players are scheduled to begin reporting to spring training sites in less than two weeks — and has rejected postseason expansion. The union believes a larger postseason de-emphasizes the regular season and therefore disincentivizes competition, particularly as it relates to player compensation. After a pandemic-shortened, 60-game 2020 season in which its players were paid a little more than one-third of their salaries, the union has refused subsequent requests — official and otherwise — to accept less than full salaries in 2021 no matter how the season is constituted.

When do baseball players get the COVID-19 vaccine? How MLB will navigate the messy rollout

For the most part, baseball players and the younger team staff will fall into the last cohort to be vaccinated: young, healthy adults who don’t work in health care or essential frontline services. By then, vaccines should be available in the community from several sources including local pharmacies and mass vaccine sites (like the ones that have been announced at Dodger Stadium and Citi Field).

“But it’s still the plan when supply is robust to work with employers and to help employers to just vaccinate all their employees,” said Claire Hannan, head of the Association of Immunization Managers.

That’s a route MLB could go, essentially becoming a private provider that would receive the vaccine directly from local governments. It would entail demonstrating that they could store and administer the vaccine correctly — which is not an insignificant barrier, at least for the one of the current iterations that is stored and transported in batches of 975 doses that have to be kept at ultracold temperatures. Perhaps more importantly, either the league itself or individual teams would have to enroll as providers in each state and be subject to that state’s timeline for distribution.

In other words, it would be difficult if not impossible to coordinate vaccination across teams. Spring training, with players converging in two states, could have alleviated that particular complication. However, at the current rate of rollout and assuming an on-time spring training, it is highly unlikely that Florida or Arizona will be vaccinating athletes before the end of March.

MLB 2021` fan plan: No mandate for vaccines or COVID-19 tests

Major League Baseball does not plan to mandate that fans provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result before entering a ballpark this year.

In a memo sent to teams Monday and obtained by the Los Angeles Times, the league outlined what it called its “minimum health and safety standards” for the 2021 season. The league noted that state and local authorities could mandate more restrictive standards and that all policies are subject to change as the public health situation in the United States changes.

The league completed its 2020 regular season without fans in attendance, because of the coronavirus pandemic. Monday’s memo was intended to help clubs plan “safely welcoming fans back to ballparks in 2021.”

In the memo, the league said teams could decide whether to require proof of vaccination, a negative COVID-19 test, and/or temperature checks but that MLB did not intend to mandate any of those steps. During the 2020 postseason, when MLB admitted a limited number of fans for the World Series and National League championship series in Arlington, Texas, the league did not require temperature checks.

MLB threatens harsh discipline for teams violating facility access protocols before spring training

Major League Baseball sent a detailed memo to its 30 teams Monday restricting access to their facilities and limiting voluntary workouts before the start of spring training, according to a copy of the document obtained by USA TODAY Sports.

While Cleveland and several major league teams planned to open their spring-training facilities this week to their players and staff for voluntary workouts, MLB sent the memo to every team’s front office with strict regulations, threatening harsh disciplinary measures to any team violating the procedures.

“We have been informed that some clubs intend to increase the number of players at their Spring Training facilities in January and February prior to the commencement of spring training,’’ the memo reads. “As you are all aware, COVID-19 is surging in the United States, and conditions may worsen after the holiday season. We have not yet received firm guidance from our medical experts on whether it is safe to conduct organized workouts in Club facilities under current conditions, and the protocols that would be required to conduct such workouts safely.

MLB says players will receive COVID-19 vaccine when ‘public health officials deem it appropriate’

Here’s the statement MLB gave Drellich:

“Like the NBA, Major League Baseball and its clubs will work with public health authorities on issues related to the availability and timing of vaccinations for players and other employees,” MLB said in a statement to The Athletic. “Vaccinations will only be made available to players when public health officials deem it appropriate.”

Earlier this month the National Basketball Association advised teams vaccinations will be “consistent with the timing and prioritization set by applicable public health guidelines.” It was recently reported the National Hockey League was planning to privately purchase the vaccine prior to their upcoming season, though that report was shot down soon thereafter.

How will MLB handle clubhouse divisions over COVID-19 vaccine as baseball seeks return to normalcy?

The legality of employers insisting on COVID-19 vaccinations is a complicated issue that will continue to develop as it becomes increasingly relevant in the coming months. Because the vaccine was released with an “emergency use authorization,” it defies precedent. And even with the eventual full FDA approval, it would need to be considered a business necessity.

As it pertains to baseball, a vaccine mandate would almost certainly have to be negotiated with the MLB Players Association (one manager compared it hypothetically to the existing joint drug agreement) and it is highly unlikely the union would agree to make it mandatory.

“It’s hard. If somebody disagrees and doesn’t want to do it, I don’t know what protocols we’re going to have in place,” Hinch said. “I know we want a safe environment, I know we want the fans back in the stands. I know we want something to feel normal again, which is baseball in the summer with freedom to move around and leave the hotel and go to the ballpark whenever we want and live a baseball life that we’ve lived our whole lives.

“Part of that is going to be a responsibility to learn about the vaccine and the important safety protocols and follow them to the best of your ability.”

Major League Baseball, union at odds on whether start of 2021 season should be delayed

Major League Baseball executives and owners, wanting players to be vaccinated before arriving to spring training, would like the 2021 season to be delayed until May, even if it means shortening the season to 140 or fewer games.

The Major League Baseball Players Association, believing it proved a year ago that teams can safely adapt to protocols, wants the season to start on time, playing all 162 games with full pay.

And here we are, with just two months before pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report for spring training, and no one has any idea what will happen.

COVID-19 cases are raging across the country this winter, but the vaccine is starting to be distributed, giving hope that by mid-summer, most everyone will have access to the immunization.

Yet, the issue that could further erode the trust between the two groups is whether owners take the stance that the season should be delayed until every player and staff member gets the vaccine.

MLB teams sue insurance providers over billions in losses during pandemic

Every Major League Baseball team has joined the commissioner’s office and the league’s digital and streaming services in a lawsuit against their insurers over financial losses during the coronavirus pandemic.

In the lawsuit, dated Oct. 16 and obtained by CNN, the plaintiffs argued they bought “top-shelf All Risks Policies” to protect against losses such as those caused by the pandemic.

“Baseball paid millions of dollars in premiums year after year because it deliberately bought broad, more protective coverage” the lawsuit states, but the insurance companies “have very publicly refused to live up to their contractual obligation to pay what they promised.”

Minor League Teams Strike Out On COVID-19 Loss Coverage

U.S. District Judge Douglas L. Rayes granted a bid to dismiss the case by National Casualty Co., Scottsdale Indemnity Co. and Scottsdale Insurance Co., saying that while the teams, led by Chattanooga Professional Baseball LLC, tried to argue there were other causes for their loss, those causes all stem from the virus.

The policies all contain language saying that the Nationwide units will not cover loss or damage resulting from any virus, the judge said. And while the teams had argued in October that their losses stem from government shutdown orders, Judge Rayes said the virus is ultimately the cause.

“Plaintiffs’ amended complaint does not allege any fact supporting an alternative theory for the issuance of the government orders,” the judge wrote. “There is no allegation in the complaint that absent the pandemic, the government would have been prompted to issue stay-at-home orders or otherwise inhibit access to the ballparks.”

The complaint specifically blames the virus for the government orders, the judge added, saying the teams have not argued that the exclusion is unambiguous.

MLB does not punish Dodgers’ Justin Turner for celebrating after positive coronavirus test

Major League Baseball on Friday announced that it will not discipline Justin Turner for his decision to return to the field to celebrate the Dodgers winning the World Series after testing positive for the coronavirus.

The league said the decision was made following an investigation. MLB initially placed blame solely on Turner the day after the Dodgers beat the Tampa Bay Rays for their first championship in 32 years, stating that “it is clear that Turner chose to disregard the agreed-upon joint protocols and the instructions he was given regarding the safety and protection of others.”

The league struck a different tone Friday, citing different factors that helped lead to Turner going onto the field for an extended period of time, including the league’s own missteps.

“Finally, Major League Baseball could have handled the situation more effectively. For example, in retrospect, a security person should have been assigned to monitor Mr. Turner when he was asked to isolate, and Mr. Turner should have been transported from the stadium to the hotel more promptly.”