Anthony Rizzo hopped on today with David Kaplan on ESPN1000, which made for an excellent 16 minutes of sound. Rizzo gets into the team’s hot start, the starting pitching, the energy of the team, the safety protocols, and much more. Good listen right here.
Somewhat unrelated to the interview, though, is something Kaplan dropped mid-conversation with Rizzo. I don’t think it’ll shock you, but it’s a mighty nice compliment for the Cubs.
From Kaplan: “Someone at MLB said to me that … a lot of what we’re now asking every team to do is stuff the Chicago Cubs have already been doing. They reached out to Theo [Epstein] and Jed [Hoyer] and said, ‘OK, we wanna talk about some of the protocols because your team seems like it’s doing the best job.'”
I don’t doubt that MLB tried to figure this thing out as best it could before the season began, and I also no longer doubt that they underestimated the “human factor” in trying to strongly recommend best practices for those humans. So, then, I respect that, as they adjust on the fly in the face of outbreaks on the Marlins and Cardinals, they are reaching out to clubs like the Cubs to see how they’ve done things.
To be sure, simply because the Cubs have done well – their players and staff have clearly taken their efforts very seriously – doesn’t mean it’s impossible to get the virus. This thing is just so easily transmissible that even when you’re following all the protocols and being as cautious as you can realistically be, you still might pick it up. I don’t think we should necessarily be shaming clubs where the virus lands, nor should we presume that teams that have avoided it will definitely continue to do so.
But, again, you can tell the Cubs have done some things right on this front, and all credit goes out to the front office, the coaching staff, and most importantly the players. It makes a lot of sense to me that MLB would reach out to find out what’s up.