Coronavirus

Major League Baseball is developing a plan to allow interested teams to share information about players participating in alternate training sites. Kiley McDaniel of ESPN.com reported the news (Twitter links), noting that it has not yet been initiated.

At this point, it appears that about twenty of MLB’s thirty teams will participate in the initiative. They’ll have the chance to share both data recordings and video. It’s intended to help teams assess players in the absence of games or any in-person scouting.

It stands to reason that this effort will help increase the potential for summer trades. Teams typically gather information right up until the mid-season trade deadline, but there’s a near-dearth of that activity at the moment except for players actually playing in the majors.

There’s no doubt that this plan is imperfect, but it seems at least to be a worthwhile workaround effort. The fact that every team won’t participate is notable. It’ll be interesting to see how that shapes the run-up to the trade deadline.

Coronavirus outbreaks have already had a significant impact on the truncated Major League Baseball regular season, as teams such as the Cardinals and Marlins have been sidelined for extended periods since the campaign opened a couple weeks ago. That type of outcome would be even more catastrophic if it were to occur during the playoffs, so the league is at least considering a bubble format for the fall, Jeff Passan of ESPN.com reports.

According to Passan, the majors could mimic the National Hockey League in designating multiple cities to host its postseason. The NHL has turned to Edmonton and Toronto for its playoffs, and the league has so far been able to pull it off. MLB, on the other hand, has dealt with great adversity this year in allowing almost all of its teams to play in their home cities.

In the event baseball does follow the hockey model for the postseason, MLB would likely use “at least three hubs” during the wild-card round, Passan writes. That number would drop to two for the LDS and one or two for the LCS and World Series. There is still no one area that’s considered a front-runner for playoff baseball, but with so much revenue on the line, one official told Passan, “If we want to make sure we get through October, we really need to get this right.”

With the coronavirus already having disrupted multiple teams’ seasons, commissioner Rob Manfred reportedly warned union chief Tony Clark last week that Major League Baseball could shut down the campaign prematurely if clubs don’t follow its protocols. Baseball has continued on since then, though, and Manfred seems confident the league will finish its current season.

The Marlins and Cardinals are well behind schedule because of positive COVID-19 tests, though Manfred told ESPN.com’s Jesse Rogers on Wednesday that most of the league’s players have behaved properly under tough circumstances.

“I think the vast majority of our players have done a really good job adhering to what are difficult protocols,” Manfred said. “They’re contrary to the way people normally live their lives.”

As Rogers explains, MLB’s protocols include surgical masks instead of cloth masks and social distancing on airplanes. According to Manfred, the league’s even considering a way to “spread” relief pitchers out in teams’ bullpens. With no fans in the stands, Manfred suggested some relievers could sit there.

Moreover, the Manfred-led league sent its 30 teams “severe, revised protocol measures” on Wednesday that say it could suspend players or staff members if they’re guilty of “repeated or flagrant violations,” Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports. Nightengale details those measures in his piece, but in short, the league’s hammering home the importance of wearing face coverings, socially distancing from one another and limiting travel to essential personnel.

“The behavior of every covered individual affects the players and staff on his or her team, and on other clubs as well,” the league said in a memo to its clubs.