The Major League Baseball Players’ Association is responding to the league’s new health protocols.
MLB has provided a new 67-page health and safety manual aimed at addressing major concerns around how the league’s 2020 season will proceed amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Items like no spitting, showers and physical contact with other players are just a few of the restrictions outlined in the document.
But the MLBPA wants a few things cleared up before progressing to the financial portion of the coronavirus debate. Among the issues the MLBPA wants addressed include testing frequency, positive test protocols, in-stadium medical personnel, protections for high-risk players and family members, access to therapies before and after games and other sanitation protocols, according to The New York Post’s Joel Sherman.
2/ •testing frequency
•protocols for positive tests
•in stadium medical personnel
•protections for high risk players and family
•access to pre and postgame therapies
•sanitization protocols— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) May 21, 2020
Certainly reasonable if you ask us.
Naturally, players already have begun voicing concerns about MLB’s new health protocols. St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Paul DeJong, for instance, still has a few lingering questions.
“Just the things inside the clubhouse we’d like to see intact as much as possible,” DeJong told USA Today Sports. “… Not being in the indoor (batting) cage, using batting gloves, the sunflower seeds and spitting thing. What if I got dirt in my mouth? They’re silly but I understand where (these questions) are coming from.”
Hopefully, MLB will be able to clear the air soon so it can tackle the next battle: finances.
