With MLB officially suspending Spring Training and postponing the start of the regular season for at least two weeks (plus Chicago teams agreeing not to host games with fans until at least May), there are enough open questions that it makes your head spin a bit when you start to go down the wormhole. We’ll try to take on the issues as best we can, and as the news about COVID-19 (and the attendant prevention measures) evolves.
As a preliminary matter, Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein just spoke with the media about the situation, and how it relates to the Cubs.
Right now, there are still a lot of unknowns – including what’s going to happen for the players, in terms of scheduling, in the near-term:
Theo on short-term plans, waiting for directive from MLB pic.twitter.com/Vg4FFZaOeQ
— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) March 12, 2020
Theo Epstein said the Nike Performance center where the Cubs reside will be shutdown on Friday for intense cleaning. Weekend and Monday schedule unsure . Monday was an original planned off day.
— Bruce Levine (@MLBBruceLevine) March 12, 2020
Theo Epstein: “We told the players everything that we know, everything that we didn’t know but hoped to know soon and shared our thoughts completely and candidly with them. Most questions we can’t answer, unfortunately, at this time. Everything that we could answer, we did.”
— Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) March 12, 2020
Theo on deep-clean of spring facility: pic.twitter.com/y1JeXnOVlM
— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) March 12, 2020
Epstein also spoke generally about situations like this, and about the challenge the United States is facing right (in part because of its own failure to properly prepare enough testing capabilities):
Cubs president Theo Epstein: “Testing is a much broader issue than just how it relates to a major-league team or a sports team. We’re far behind in this country as a whole in testing, so our stance is the more testing, the better.”
— Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) March 12, 2020
Theo Epstein: “The guiding principles at times like these are listen to the science. So for us, that means listening to the scientific experts and the public health professionals. And then another guiding principle is transparency.”
— Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) March 12, 2020
Theo: "I'm not a doctor, but following the lead of the doctors we haven't had anyone in camp, including David (Ross), who's met the standard to get tested in this country, which is right now it's a really, really high threshold just to get a test. …
— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) March 12, 2020
"And we hope our country gets to the point where we can have a lot of testing so we can better assess the situation and make better decisions going forward. But … as it relates to the team right now, no player in camp has met the current standard this country to be tested.”
— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) March 12, 2020
Theo Epstein: :"There have been a shockingly low number of tests throughout the country and we all hope that changes soon."
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) March 12, 2020
The league and the Players Association are going to have conversations tonight on how to proceed going forward, so we’ll likely get another update about whether players will remain at camp, or whether they will head home.
And depending on that decision, more questions will follow. This is all just so nuts.