Could fans of the Philadelphia Phillies and the other 29 teams in Major League Baseball enjoy the start of regular season action by July 1, 2020? It’s one possibility currently being considered.
The game’s leading MLB insider, Ken Rosenthal at The Athletic, released a piece on Wednesday morning which stated the following in part “According to sources, officials from at least one team, the Indians, gave their players a “mark in the sand” Tuesday for Opening Day — July 1…”
Rosenthal went on to expound on the situation which developed in the Cleveland organization:
“Indians officials, on a Zoom call that included about 70 members of the organization, estimated the season would begin after a three-week ramp-up, putting the start of Spring Training 2.0 around June 10…But the officials made it clear the dates were mere targets, fully expected to change. They simply wanted players to be prepared if the league meets all of the logistical challenges necessary to play.”
The tone of the Rosenthal piece was two-fold, both presenting facts which actually occurred while also throwing a bit of cold water on the entire situation since nothing concrete has been proposed in public.
Trevor Plouffe is a nine-year big-leaguer who last played in Major League Baseball with the Phillies in 2018. At age 33, he is currently a free agent. Plouffe tweeted out the following on Monday afternoon:
Phillies skipper Joe Girardi addressed the July 1 rumors in a radio interview on Tuesday per Michael Rand at the Star-Tribune:
“I’ve heard some chatter about that as well. I still think it really comes down to … we’re at the mercy of our federal and state government. I mean that’s what we’re at the mercy of. We have to make sure states are open, and we have to make sure that there are plenty of tests and we’re not endangering anyone, and once we figure those things out I think we’ll be back. But God, that would be great if we could be back by then, wouldn’t it?”
Certainly MLB has to be making tentative plans to return contingent on the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic health circumstances as they develop in real time. Those have been generally positive as the calendar turned from April to May, as many expected.
Should those positive signs continue and as MLB watches how the situation develops overseas with the Korean Baseball Organization and Chinese Professional Baseball(Taiwan) leagues we should expect some official public announcement in the coming weeks.
MATT VEASEY 