Major League Baseball is eager to start its season.
The league reportedly proposed starting a second training camp in June with the regular season following in July. An Opening Day on July 1 has been floated around, optimistically speaking, but everything rides on two things.
The coronavirus, and the players’ actual desire to put themselves and their families at risk of contracting it.
Collin McHugh, who the Boston Red Sox signed a week before the original spring training got shut down, told MassLive’s Chris Cotillo that the league can’t force players to play if they’re uncomfortable with it.
Here’s what McHugh had to say:
We’re in a situation right now where you can’t make this mandatory. You can’t tell a guy you have to come play or else your roster spot is not going to be here when you come back. You can’t tell a guy to risk his life and the life of his family and the lives of anyone he chooses to be around to come play this game. There’s probably going to have to be some waivers signed and whatever else you need to have done to make guys feel comfortable coming back. Then, MLB and the teams are going to have to do everything in their power so that we go about this in the best way possible and don’t just start playing games, but really set an example of how to do this, how to do it well and how to do it safely.
I’m probably in the minority here because I see baseball for what it is, which is an amazing game but not an essential activity. We’ve got a lot of things going on in this world that we need to happen and need to get going, and we need to do it in a safe manner. It’s going to be really hard to get the risk level down to zero no matter what we’re doing. As long as this virus is still out there and as long as we don’t have a treatment or vaccine, there’s going to be risk inherent in leaving your house. For me, as a major league baseball player and as a husband and father, I want to make sure I’m protecting myself and my family, first and foremost.
With all this anticipation for sports to come back, how the players feel about returning to play has been overlooked.
At the end of the day, it’s their call.
