While the 2020 Major League Baseball season has yet to get underway due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the sport’s leaders and the MLB Players Association have been brainstorming a number of ways to reopen as soon as it is deemed safe enough.
The most logistical option to this point is playing all games at Spring Training facilities in Arizona and Florida with no fans in attendance, although that has raised some issues as well.
The main concern with that plan amongst players throughout the league is that they would likely be forced to stay away from their own families for several months at a time. In order to ensure everyone’s safety, players would only be allowed to go to the field and wherever they are quarantined.
Alex Wood is among the Los Angeles Dodgers who said he would be fine with that plan considering he doesn’t have any children, but he doesn’t think other players would feel the same.
If there is to be a 2020 season and players want to get paid though, then they may have no other choice but to cooperate with the league. While there still are some hurdles to get through, Wood believes players would cooperate with whatever rules puts in place if they are able to come to an agreement, via Andy McCullough of The Athletic:
“If we agreed to it, I think guys would follow it,” Wood said. “Because nobody wants to be the idiot that is like sneaking out or going other places and all of a sudden, boom, that person gets sick, and it’s like, ‘Now you just messed everything up.’”
Players wouldn’t want to put themselves and their teammates in danger of contracting the coronavirus, so Wood is correct that they theoretically would have no choice but to cooperate with the quarantine rules if there is a 2020 season.
With that being said, only time will tell if this is able to take place or not. The country still has a lot of work to do until the virus can get under control enough that it’s safe for players to leave their homes to play a season.
It seems that all parties involved are committed to getting some sort of season in though, which is good for Wood and the Dodgers, who are one of the favorites to win the World Series.
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