With a worldwide pandemic halting the run-up to the regular season, we’ve seen Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association engaged on a variety of complicated subjects. The sheer uncertainty of the situation has created major concerns for just about everyone involved in the game — some of whom are much better situated than others to take care of themselves.

The MLBPA has acted to provide emergency funds to certain players who are now staring at a potential loss and delay of wages. It has initiated a program to provide a $1,100 weekly stipend to players that depart camp.

That effort was initially rather limited but has now been broadened to cover a wider class of MLB players. Per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter), the MLBPA will now offer the sum through April 9th to all players who were on a 40-man roster as of March 13th of this year, even if they were already on optional assignment. Also included are all non-roster invitees to big league camps who accrued at least one day of MLB service in the 2019 season.

Quite a few big leaguers have no real need for that kind of support, though it’s not fair to paint with overly broad strokes for the entire league. Younger and/or less-established players may not have accrued significant earnings at all to this point of their careers.

That said, the effort doesn’t address the biggest player-related need in the game: that of the many minor-leaguers who have now been thrust into quite a tough position. Those players were unexpectedly sent home rather than continuing to participate in Spring Training. And they’ve been counting on their earnings to start back up again with the new season, which now won’t occur for some time.

It’s an unusual situation, but these are unusual times. Emily Waldon of The Athletic has become an unlikely nexus point for minor-leaguers in need of some form of assistance or job opportunity and those willing to help them out. (See, e.g., this Twitter link.)

Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post reports on the difficulties faced by those non-40-man players. The matter is on the table to be addressed between the league and union, he says, but the salary situation of big league players is first on the docket.

The Rays have promised their minor-leaguers a $400 weekly stipend through the end of the month. The Mets and Dodgers have done the same, per Kyle Glaser of Baseball America. Some other teams are working to do the same, per Glaser, but it is obviously a situation that seems to demand leaguewide action.

It’s an especially tough spot for these hopeful future big leaguers, Dougherty explains, because they aren’t sure what type of employment to seek given the possibility of the season re-starting. The always difficult tradeoffs of immediate practicalities and long-term dreams are already proving tougher than ever.

One might hope that the league and union act quickly to provide at least temporary relief for these players. It’s one of several major problems with numerous dimensions. And that’s all before considering the fact that many stadium workers and other seasonal employees in big league cities are now looking at lost anticipated earnings with the season on hold.

We started the day with teams hunkered down in their spring facilities, awaiting word on what to do next with Cactus and Grapefruit League contests cancelled. MLB and MLBPA discussions resulted in an agreement that allowed players to head home and recommended they do so in many cases. MLB has just announced that Spring Training has officially been suspended.

Thus far, however, teams have taken differing approaches — driven at least in part, it must be noted, by player preferences. In all cases, players can now elect to join their families at their homes. Should they elect to stay, they’ll receive standard per diems.

While all players are being allowed to make their own choices, the disparate approaches don’t seem optimal. We’ll have to see whether this prompts a brighter-line approach at the league-union level.

Then again, teams and players are in a gray area in terms of preparing for the season. It’s clear that Opening Day will be pushed back at least two weeks, but far from obvious when it’ll occur.

We’ll use this post to track the developments on this topic.

Staying as a full group:

• Tigers players voted to remain in Florida for now, and general manager Al Avila will also be on hand, MLB.com’s Jason Beck writes.  The players will be taking part in informal workouts with the medical staff and minor league coaches on hand.
• Brandon Belt and Evan Longoria believe the entire Giants team will return to the field when the club’s spring facility re-opens on Monday, the two players tell Henry Schulman and John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle.
• Just about all of the Rangers’ players plan to stay in camp through week and then proceed to Dallas, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News writes.  Workouts will then continue either at the Rangers’ new ballpark or at the team’s youth academy, provided no further developments have taken place.
• The Yankees players have unanimously voted to remain and keep training, per player rep Zack Britton (via George A. King III of the New York Post, on Twitter). GM Brian Cashman says he will remain as well, along with the coaching and training staff, Jack Curry of YES Network tweets.
• All of the Padres’ MLB roster is staying in the area for now, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports on Twitter.

Mostly or largely dispersing:

• Most of the Twins are leaving camp, with The Athletic’s Dan Hayes (Twitter link) writing that around 20 players from both the Major League and minor league camps will stay.
• The Cardinals, meanwhile, have decided to close camp for the most part, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports (Twitter links). Ten to fifteen St. Louis players will remain on hand for the time being.
• It seems that’s more or less the approach of the Braves. MLB.com’s Mark Bowman tweets that multiple players have left the facility, some of whom hope to be able to train together in the Atlanta area.
• The Reds are also seeing the majority of players off, Bobby Nightengale Jr. of the Cincinnati Enquirer was among those to report on Twitter.

Wait-and-see stance:

• A “high majority” of Mets players are expected to remain in camp, a source tells Newsday’s Tim Healey reports.
• The Diamondbacks face “a little bit of a unique situation” in that their Spring Training site is close to their home city, GM Mike Hazen told reporters (including The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan and MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert).  Since so many players live in the area, Hazen believes most of the team will continue to work out at the spring facility.
• The Rays’ Florida camp is also relatively close to home, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes, though it isn’t yet clear how many players are planning to remain.  Tropicana Field will be opened for informal workouts on March 23, however.
• The Nationals will meet as a team tomorrow, Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post reports on Twitter, with many planning to stick around.
• Most Cubs players will remain in Arizona, at least until their leases run out at the end of the month, MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian tweets.
• The Angels are still thinking through their options, Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times reports on Twitter.
• Likewise, the Marlins are staying close by and waiting to make decisions, Craig Mish of SportsGrid tweets.
• All but three of the players in Mariners camp — 40-man members plus non-roster invitees — will stay on hand, Corey Brock of The Athletic was among those to report via Twitter.

4:07pm: There is no formal directive to freeze rosters at this point, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter).

Some within the game are still hoping to squeeze in a 162-game regular season. Red Sox president Sam Kennedy (Twitter link via Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic) and White Sox VP Scott Reifer (Twitter link via Adam Hoge of NBC Sports Chicago) said as much. And Nightengale (via Twitter) and Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal (via Twitter) were among those to report the same from unnamed sources.

Of course, Diamond was also among those that have pointed to a recognition within the game that the initial delay will be for more than two weeks. And the Red Sox front office acknowledged in its conference call today that there’d need to be a second round of Spring Training before starting back up.

Those (and many other) factors will make it awfully difficult to make it to 162 while still wrapping up postseason play by even early November. Kennedy noted the possibility of holding games at spring sites or without fans, but even in that scenario it would seem to require quite some creativity to make a full season possible given the limits of how hard pitchers can be worked. Perhaps hosting postseason contests at sites impervious to the cold would allow some flexibility on the back end.

1:11pm: Yesterday, public health imperatives relating to the spread of the coronavirus forced Major League Baseball to pause Spring Training and institute a two-week delay to the regular season. The decision leaves many questions left to answer in the coming days, weeks, and months.

Teams are holding in place and awaiting further direction for the time being. MLB and MLB Players Association representatives are scheduled to meet this weekend to work out a plan, Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times reports (Twitter links).

In the meantime, White Sox GM Rick Hahn says that MLB has temporarily paused player transactions, MLB.com’s Scott Merkin reports (via Twitter). The freeze will be in place through the weekend, at least.

This is certainly not the right moment for trades and waiver claims to be executed, so an immediate moratorium was all but certain. Presumably, a more formalized plan for dealing with roster matters will ultimately go into place. It’s obvious that some kind of exceptional measures will be needed.

Typically, this is a time of year when we begin to see a high volume of transactions. Many of those rate as relatively minor in comparison to the high-profile signings and trades that we focus on, but they mean quite a bit to the individual players involved.

To some extent, it’s not difficult to imagine a roster freeze from a logistical perspective. Dates for certain decisions can simply be pushed back. There may be some tricky bits to sort out, but they’re of relatively minor import.

The tougher questions relate to the potential for a lengthy stoppage. While the initial postponement of Opening Day covered two weeks, every indication is that further delays will take place.

For the time being, players are being kept on site in spring facilities. Teams are taking varying approaches, with some holding limited workouts and others canceling player activities.

Managing this crisis will require the league and union to work together to ensure a fair outcome for all players. Minor-leaguers aren’t even compensated for time spent in Spring Training, so the loss of anticipated in-season earnings would be devastating. And that’s just as true for the many workers around the country who rely upon ballgames to pay their bills.