“My hope is that there’s a sense of normalcy to 2021,” Clark said. In a phone interview this week, Halem added, “Right now, we’re planning for a normal season.”

But so much can change between now and when pitchers and catchers are expected to report to spring training in Florida and Arizona. “Everything we plan for has to be subject to the circumstances that exist, when we’re about to start, vis-à-vis Covid,” said Halem, who oversees the league’s labor negotiations.

Among the questions Halem said were on baseball’s mind: While positive cases are surging to record levels in the United States, will that be the case come February? When will a vaccine arrive? Would players have access to it before spring training? Before the regular season? What contingencies will the sides plan for over a longer season? What changes will they make to their extensive health and safety operations manual, which outlined the every-other-day testing program for players and on-field staff members?

“It’s hard to make decisions because nobody really has concrete information yet,” Halem said. “Hopefully each month we’ll get a little more and more information about what next year may look like.”

Everything about a longer season is more difficult, Halem said. So many things had to go right, from testing deliveries to individual responsibility, to pull off the 60-game regular season. Now multiply that by nearly three. Playing more games means more chances for infection, and potentially more games to postpone to a finite number of off days should positive cases arise.

Halem and Clark said the lessons learned from the 2020 season will help M.L.B. and the players’ union plan for the challenges of next year. Until Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner learned he had tested positive for the coronavirus during the final game of the World Series — and left his mandated isolation to celebrate the championship with his teammates on the field — there hadn’t been a positive case among baseball players for nearly two months.

“There was a physical toll as well as a mental toll on all of those involved, which is going to be important to take into account moving forward,” Clark said. “As it relates to protocols, appreciating what we knew back in March, April and May versus what we learned in July, August and September is all going to be beneficial.”

Source: New York Times

Powered by NewsAPI.org