Some players opt NOT to play MLB in the COVID-19 era..... regardless of the money.

[mjp28]

Some players opt NOT to play MLB in the COVID-19 era..... regardless of the money.

Are we OK with that? By playing in a pandemic, MLB forces players to calculate the risks

Tim BrownMLB columnist

Yahoo SportsJune 29, 2020, 9:43 AM EDT

Before the testing, monitoring and sequestering of hundreds of professional baseball players and hundreds more personnel, it’s fair to ask what we have the stomach for.

Sixty men per team, 30 teams, across 60 games. Into the teeth of this thing. Trotting toward the virus, if not in an all-out run, the integrity of the pursuit somewhere between that of an ER nurse and a Comal River tuber. 

“When and where” is here, a time and place wearing thin because of rising coronavirus cases, public protocol backpedals and rewarmed fears the worst is still out there somewhere.

 

The business of baseball is reopening into what amounts to a four-month dip into the bog of what is known and what is not, a crisis managed by those with one eye on human casualties and the other on election day. The rest is batting practice.

So, baseball players, their coaches, their staffers, all the people who tend to the details that present themselves by 7 o’clock as a big-league ballgame, are tasked with keeping calm and carrying on. That means performing. That means entertaining. That means putting something on TV that isn’t recommended by an algorithm and scored by Rotten Tomatoes. It also means pulling a paycheck, just as it means shining up the brand and enriching the man who pays everyone.

That means staying virus-free or surviving the alternative, not for the welfare of the game, but for the good of the guy who wakes up one morning with a slight fever and a sore throat. And then it gets complicated, well beyond the plan to test, treat, quarantine and contact trace, then test again.

MLB and the players union agreed that high-risk players may opt out of the season and receive full pay and service time. Healthy players, some of whom might have high-risk family members at home, may opt out but not necessarily receive pay or time. Predictions from around the league — league and team officials, agents, players — suggest there will be opt-outs in both categories, though so far none has gone public.

[mjp28]

Mike Leake, Ryan Zimmerman opt out of 2020 MLB season due to coronavirus concerns

Mark TownsendYahoo Sports Contributor

Yahoo SportsJune 29, 2020, 3:34 PM EDT

 

As Major League Baseball nears its return, several players have been forced to wrestle with a difficult decision: Is the risk of exposure to the coronavirus worth it?

On Monday, veteran Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Mike Leake became the first player to definitively say no, it is not worth risking his health and the health of his loved ones to play baseball through a pandemic. Joe Ross and Ryan Zimmerman, two members of the Washington Nationals, also decided not to play in 2020. Last week, Zimmerman — whose mother has multiple sclerosis — explained deciding whether to play is a complex decision that will weigh heavily on several players.

As MLB teams prepare to gather for training camp this week and finalize rosters this week, we will likely see more players deciding to skip the 2020 season. Players who are medically determined to be high-risk have the option to sit out the season and still receive salary and service time, per the league’s operations manual. However, the same leeway does not exist for players who have a high-risk family member. If a player with a high-risk family member sits out, he would not be guaranteed salary or service time — with teams handling those decisions, per The Athletic.

 

 

[The Gipper]

Does it matter if we are OK with it?    It is their lives, they are free to consider the risks. 

My only thing is that I am not sure I like the setup where they are going to play in all the regular stadiums.....since, correct me if I am wrong, they still do not intend to have fans at the game.   They should have done it the way  that the NBA and NHL did.   Select one or two cities as "Bubble cities"  and put the teams there to play.  Though I agree it would have been harder with baseball.  NBA and NHL teams don't play every day.  Baseball probably would have had to choose either Arizona and Florida....but in hindsight those could have been bad news.  

[gumby73]

            Play Ball! 

[mjp28]

14 hours ago, The Gipper said:

Does it matter if we are OK with it?    It is their lives, they are free to consider the risks. 

My only thing is that I am not sure I like the setup where they are going to play in all the regular stadiums.....since, correct me if I am wrong, they still do not intend to have fans at the game.   They should have done it the way  that the NBA and NHL did.   Select one or two cities as "Bubble cities"  and put the teams there to play.  Though I agree it would have been harder with baseball.  NBA and NHL teams don't play every day.  Baseball probably would have had to choose either Arizona and Florida....but in hindsight those could have been bad news.  

That's true it should be the player's choice to play or not play under these circumstances.  Many have young kids, wife, elderly family.

And no fans in a 60 game season.....if they can make that.....is just an unfortunate situation.   I do miss my summer baseball.