Earlier Monday, Major League Baseball announced they will follow the new guidelines by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, which recommended no gatherings of more than 50 people for the next eight weeks to help combat the spread of coronavirus. That would halt baseball operations until May 10, and likely push the start of the regular season back until at least late May or early June.
Those measures may not be enough. There are talks among some general managers that the season may not start until July, according to Bob Nightengale.
However, according to the Pirates' Ben Cherington, there has not been any discussion about a total shutdown.
"Our hope is with every intention, there will be a season," Cherington said in a conference call Monday afternoon when asked if there is a drop dead date for the season. "That we will play major-league games, minor-league games in 2020. Play as many of them as we can, both at the major-league and minor-league level. I think there's a level of confidence that will happen, but of course none of us can know for sure."
The Pirates have begun to scale down their spring training camps in Bradenton, Fla. and the Dominican Republic.
Most players in those camps have gone home, though some are staying in Pirates facilities if they feel they would be in danger.
"Really our focus has just been on making sure that our players and employees are safe, that they all have the resources necessary to do what they need to do every day and that they are informed," Cherington said. "And we'll continue to do that, the best we possibly can."
The 40-man roster players were given the option to to either stay in Bradenton, go to Pittsburgh or go home Friday night. Cherington said "the vast majority" are either in Bradenton or at home at this point.
For those in Bradenton in Pittsburgh, the club will make sure the facilities and an appropriate level of support staff are available to players.
"We'll manage that so that we avoid large numbers of players working out together and that it's effectively done on a case by case basis with each player," Cherington said.
Derek Shelton, a Florida resident, will work with those who stay in Bradenton. Cherington plans to leave Florida Tuesday.
Of course, a longer layoff away from a formal spring training would mean players would need extra time to prepare for the season, though it would be on a case by case basis.
“That might look different for different players, the idea being optimally guys would stay in some sort of ready state so that when we do have better information on a season start, we’d be in a position to ramp up more quickly than we would in a typical year,” Cherington said. “But I can’t tell you exactly how long we’d need.”
MLB suspended spring training on Mar. 12, bringing an abrupt end to what had been a productive spring for the Pirates.
"We were really excited about the kind of work that a lot of our players were doing," Cherington said.
The players felt the same way.
"It really was a sense of disappointment from our players that they couldn't continue that work," Cherington said on the players' initial reaction to the shutdown. "We will just need to continue that work and do it in different ways."
