[Ed. – MLB has suspended Spring Training and delayed the start of the regular season by at least two weeks. Original post follows.]
The writing was on the wall last night with the NBA’s decision, and it was only a matter of time before MLB joined the national efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 by preventing large groups of people from spreading the disease more rapidly than our health care system can handle.
The first step is going to be suspending Spring Training:
Hearing from folks in Grapefruit League that spring training is expected to be suspended here.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 12, 2020
There is a feeling of inevitability among executives that Major League Baseball will be suspending spring training as soon as today, sources tell ESPN.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 12, 2020
Official announcements are coming, and it could include an initial wave of postponements for the start of the season:
Baseball officials have been meeting all day on its coronavirus plan. The expectation is that there will be some sort of announcement today.
— Jared Diamond (@jareddiamond) March 12, 2020
Nothing official from central baseball yet. Every exec/personnel I talk to today expects an MLB announcement that will impact the playing of spring games and probably regular season start as well. But AGAIN nothing official from MLB office.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) March 12, 2020
We’ll keep tracking as things change by the hour. Jason Heyward understands why it matters that even young and healthy ballplayers join the process:
Jason Heyward: “I’m more worried about going and saying hello to my parents. They’re 62, 63 years old. I got teammates with kids. Relatives. I’m just more worried about that – the safety of everyone else that may not be able to fight it off.”
— Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) March 12, 2020
UPDATE: Today’s Cubs-Dodgers game has been cancelled, but not necessarily because a league-wide suspension is coming. For now, it’s just the weather:
Dodgers-Cubs game today has been cancelled due to weather. Ross said earlier that Jon Lester would likely get his innings in indoors.
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) March 12, 2020