We’d be a month into the Major League Baseball season had it not been halted by the coronavirus pandemic. But instead we’re riding out the sports pause while healthcare workers fight to get the virus under control.
There’s no timeline if or when the 2020 season will begin, but ESPN’s Jeff Passan on Monday reported the MLB is hopeful to have a plan to start the campaign by the end of May. However, it doesn’t seem like a strict deadline.
“The next month could provide a number of answers to issues baseball is considering as it plots its return. … The end of May isn’t a drop-dead point to have a plan in place, sources said, as much as it’s a reasonable and logical one,” Passan wrote.
Commissioner Rob Manfred “fully anticipates” baseball will happen. Now it’s just a matter of when that will be.
Of course, teams will need time to get reacquainted. Passan said players could “prepare for three weeks” before beginning the season in July with the postseason being held in “warm-weather, neutral sites.”
There still is a lot to work out, of course. Some questions include where players and staff will stay, how they’ll be monitored and if they’ll be allowed to bring their families along or need to be isolated from them.
This also all depends on the progress made with the pandemic and states loosening the stay-at-home orders and advisories.
There’s a lot of unknown surrounding the world of sports. But the safety of the players, officials, staff and everyone else involved is the most important.
