The Los Angeles Dodgers head into the 2020 season with one of the best rosters in all of baseball, although with the league being shut down due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, they have not yet gotten the chance to prove it.
Luckily, they will finally get the chance to prove it as the 2020 season will be getting underway soon with players reporting to their home cities for Spring Training 2.0 this week. The Dodgers are scheduled to hold their first official workout on Friday.
The Dodgers and all other teams will have about three weeks to ramp back up before Opening Day takes place on July 23 and 24. That should give them plenty of time to get back into baseball shape and also get reacquainted with their teammates.
L.A. has one of the most tight-knit clubhouses in the sport, and during this shutdown, a number of players have spoken about how much they miss being with their teammates.
That was again the case when reliever Joe Kelly spoke in an interview on “The Bradfo Show” about the excitement he feels to get back with his teammates and return to the field:
“Yeah, I’m looking forward to playing baseball. Definitely looking forward to it. I haven’t seen any of my teammates. The last time I saw them was in Arizona. It was me, Price, Joc Pederson and Cody Bellinger. It was right at the heart of everything being shut down but Arizona was living next level and never shut down the golf courses. So we booked a foursome — none of the wives were happy — but I was like, ‘Hey, we all get our own cart.’ This was probably a month and a half or two months ago. Me and Belli won some money off D.P. and Joc Pederson, so that was the last time I saw any of my teammates. We played a round of golf and it was fun. There was nobody out there.”
Kelly even recently took it a step further, saying that the only reason he is playing the 2020 season is because he doesn’t want to let down his teammates.
While that is very admirable of Kelly, players should not feel pressured to play in 2020 and assume the health risks if they don’t feel comfortable doing so. Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and manager Dave Roberts have both said they would support anyone who decided to opt out.
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