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Quick Hits: MiLB, Bichette, Axford

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Minor league baseball teams are being hit particularly hard by the coronavirus shutdown, per Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper. With the shutdown coming so close to the start of the season, many minor league teams had already spent money in preparation for the season – money they aren’t likely to recoup. Some teams will consider small business loans to stay afloat, but there’s too much uncertainty to forecast too far into the future. The livelihoods of the many part-time workers that help keep minor league ballparks functioning is a primary concern, of course, but there’s definitely the possibility of losing a minor league team or two wholesale. Cooper says this of the issue, “The numbers vary, but without significant help from the government or others, estimates from people inside MiLB range from 10 to 40 MiLB clubs that may struggle to make it through the season.” Let’s head north of the border for some more updates…

  • Bo Bichette has been keeping his arm loose, trying to keep a routine and stay prepared, but with the layoff stretching longer than initially expected, he’s considering taking some time off from the even most basic baseball activities, per TSN’s Scott Mitchell. There are obviously bigger issues at play here, which is why Bichette has no problem backburnering his career for the time being while focusing on social distancing. That said, in the distant background of Mitchell’s article, the question of ballplayer health arises. It will be an interesting one to track when/if the season does get underway.
  • Speaking of complications from the current crisis, Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch hopes the current layoff pushes the league and players’ union to find some common ground when it comes to eventual collective bargaining. Frederickson provides a quote from Andrew Miller, who captured the sentiment of many when he said “The finances of the game, whether it’s from the player or the owner perspective, it’s in everybody’s best interest to get games going.”
  • John Axford was mounting a comeback bid before COVID-19 rearranged everyone’s priorities, per the Canadian Press at Sportsnet.ca. Axford sustained a stress fracture in his right elbow during spring training last year, missing the entire season while recovering. The once-mustachioed Axford last appeared in the majors for the Blue Jays and Dodgers in 2018, sustaining some bad luck en route to a 5.27 ERA across 50 outings. A 3.98 FIP suggests the underlying output from Axford deserves a second look. Over his ten year career, Axford made 543 appearances for the Brewers, A’s, Rockies, Pirates, Cardinals, Dodgers, Indians and Blue Jays, though no stop was more noteworthy than his early days in Milwaukee, which included a 46-save season in 2011. In total, he notched 144 career saves with a 3.87 ERA/3.67 FIP. Whether Axford gets another chance at cracking an MLB roster remains to be seen, but he’s keeping his options open for now.

Several Potential Effects Of Delayed Season

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Because of the global coronavirus pandemic, no one knows how long the 2020 Major League Baseball will go or if one will even occur. Considering it’s all but certain that each team will play fewer than 162 games this year, there are naturally myriad questions that the league and the union are going to have to figure out, as Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic covered this week (subscription link).

So far, players’ service time is “the most contentious” issue MLB and the MLBPA are discussing, Rosenthal and Drellich hear. After all, how much service time a player accrues in a given season has a lasting effect on the future of him and his employer. The 2019 season featured 186 days (including off time), leaving a possible 172 days of service time for each player to amass. But it’s unknown how MLB will handle service time should a shortened season take place. In a worst-case scenario, there might not be a season at all.

Rosenthal and Drellich use the prominent example of Dodgers superstar Mookie Betts, who’s currently set to be at the forefront of next winter’s free-agent class. Under MLB’s current rules, Betts needs 102 more days of service to make it to the open market, though he and everyone else around the league may be fortunate to even rack up that many. So, it seems the league and the players must position themselves to draw up some other arrangement.

If no season happens, the union would still want each major leaguer to get a full year of service, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. Rosenthal reports differently, on the other hand, writing that the union will not seek a full season of service for every player if the 2020 campaign is canceled. Rather, in the event there is no 2020 season, the union has proposed for players who totaled a certain, unknown number of service days in 2019 to garner a full year. Joel Sherman of the New York Post backs up Rosenthal, though Sherman adds that the union’s hope is that everyone who tallied at least 60 days in 2019 will earn a full year of service time this year. The league countered with an offer of 130 days in 2020 or “that proportional service would be given” if there are fewer days this season, per Sherman. who notes that MLB is reluctant to offer a full year of service without an acceptable amount of games played or revenue collected.

Of course, as Rosenthal and Drellich detail, the length of a season has a direct effect on such issues as arbitration, vesting options and incentives. The present arbitration system hinges largely on a player’s ability to record counting stats (home runs, RBI, wins, saves and holds come to mind), but if there are fewer games, the sport may have to come up with a different arbitration method for at least next winter. Likewise, for those who have vesting options for 2021 and/or incentives baked into their contracts (plate appearances and games pitched, to name two examples), baseball might have to hammer out a solution that levels the playing field.

In addition to the aforementioned issues, it’s also in question how much money players will receive if there’s a truncated or canceled season. With America amid a national emergency, commissioner Rob Manfred has the right to withhold players’ salaries, but it doesn’t appear MLB is inclined to battle the MLBPA over money, Rosenthal and Drellich write, in part because it could damage the two sides’ relationship. That’s just about the last thing the game needs with serious negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement looming. The current CBA expires in December 2021.

MLB Announces “Interim Support” Plan To Pay Minor League Players

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Major League Baseball has announced a plan that will see minor league players receive some form of financial help while the baseball world is in limbo due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  As per the media release…

Each player who is under a Minor League Uniform Player Contract will receive a lump sum equal to the allowances that would have been paid through April 8th.  The exceptions to this plan are non-40-man-roster players who are already receiving Major League allowances; players who are currently receiving housing, food or other services from Clubs; and players who were not participating in, or expected to participate in, Minor League Spring Training.   MLB remains in communication with Clubs on the development of an industry-wide plan for Minor League player compensation from April 9th through the beginning of the coming season.

The announcement also called this plan an “initial step,” as “MLB intends to continue working with all 30 Clubs to identify additional ways to support those players as a result of the delayed 2020 season.”  In essence, the league now has a couple more weeks to figure out a longer-term answer to the problem of paying minor league players, amidst the countless other issues that must be addressed during this prolonged shutdown.

While some teams (including the Rays, Mets, and Dodgers) have already made arrangements to provide their minor leaguers with a stipend, this news from the league formalizes such payments across all 30 farm systems, covering hundreds of minor league players.  It will undoubtedly bring comfort to these athletes, the vast majority of whom didn’t receive any sort of notable signing bonus and have been earning less-than-minimum wage salaries during their playing careers.

The financial difficulties faced by minor league players was a subject of controversy well before the coronavirus outbreak, of course, though the timing of the league-wide shutdown right in the midst of Spring Training (when minor leaguers enjoyed the bonus of lodgings and meal money provided by their organizations) made the situation particularly troublesome.  Some clubs like the Diamondbacks have continued to provide these amenities to minor leaguers during the shutdown — as the Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro notes, D’Backs prospects thus won’t be subject to the league-wide policy.

Reds Employee Tests Positive For Coronavirus

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An unnamed employee from the Reds’ spring training facility in Goodyear, Ariz., has tested positive for COVID-19, the team announced Wednesday. This person “worked only in the training complex,” the Reds added. The club’s now testing any member of its staff who came in close contact with the employee from Feb. 29 through March 14. Those individuals have been self-quarantined.

The Reds share their spring training ballpark with the Indians, though there’s no indication that any member of the Cleveland organization was in contact with the Cincinnati employee. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks’ last spring training game before the shutdown came against the Reds. D-backs general manager Mike Hazen addressed the situation (via Arizona Sports 98.7 FM), saying that “I don’t believe we’ve had any contact. But we’re asking those questions.”

The Reds employee is the third person from around baseball who has tested positive for coronavirus in the past week. Two Yankees minor leaguers previously tested positive for the illness.

MLB Faced With Difficult Questions Regarding Draft

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The Coronavirus pandemic has thrown professional sports into a state of chaos, with baseball in a particularly uncertain position given that its regular season hasn’t even started. But while much of the focus has been on when the season will start, that’s far from the only issue with which the league and players’ union are wrestling. The June draft, for instance, represents an extremely difficult challenge. High school and college seasons have both been halted, leaving clubs without any opportunities to scout this year’s crop of players.

To that end, Ronald Blum of the Associated Press reports that the league and the union have discussed canceling the draft entirely. Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic also report that possibility is under consideration, adding that a combined 2020-21 draft class has been discussed.

Of course, the myriad logistical problems associated with that scenario are rather apparent. College seniors, in particular, would be left out to dry. College juniors could simply stay for their senior year, but returning for a fourth season would be a double-edged sword; currently projected top picks would face the risk of tanking their stock with an injury or poor showing, while mid- and lower-round picks could have a chance to substantially elevate their stock.

Similarly, high school seniors would be left in a state of limbo. The league and union could alter the draft eligibility guidelines that currently don’t allow college freshmen to be selected, but that creates complications for and pushback from the NCAA. As Baseball America’s Carlos Colazzo points out, the level of competition for playing time among freshmen would skyrocket if the year’s entire prep class were to advance to collegiate ball. That, too, could complicate matters from a scouting perspective.

Collazo spoke with multiple scouting directors throughout the league, with one AL director opining that keeping the draft in place as presently constructed is the best solution. The director noted that “you’re going to have to worry about scouting the PDP League and the 2021 (class). Those are hugely important events while you’re also simultaneously preparing for the draft. Your scouts are going to be pulled in different directions.”

Clubs have been scouting both this year’s high school and college players for years already. And while the lack of a spring season doesn’t give those teams the most recent looks to evaluate the class, it avoids many of the logistical difficulties that come with postponing or canceling the 2020 draft. Certainly, evaluating high school students would be of particular difficulty, given that they’re earlier on in their development (both from a baseball and purely physical standpoint).

Collazo rightly notes that leaving the draft in place only impacts the current draft, whereas pushing back to a combined 2020-21 setting throws a wrench into multiple draft classes. A delay may well happen, though, with one agent telling Collazo it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the draft “moved back a little bit, or moved back as appropriate and they do try and get the college kids back to their campuses in May or June. Kind of ramp back up under those facilities. You do some regional type workouts at the big universities, all the area guys come in.” However, the agent admitted that’s far from a perfect scenario, wondering: “Who pays for it? When is it? What does the NCAA allow? You have all these things kind of stacking up.” 

Holding the draft on schedule would seem to be the ideal outcome for baseball. Unfortunately, though, no one knows whether that will prove to be realistic with COVID-19 wreaking havoc across the globe.

Second Yankees Minor Leaguer Tests Positive For Coronavirus

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5:20pm: The Yankees have confirmed the report, issuing a statement announcing that while in self-quarantine, the still-unnamed player reported “fatigue and an elevated body temperature” to team medical personnel. The player remains in quarantine, and his symptoms have begun to dissipate, per the club.

10:59am: A second, unnamed Yankees minor-leaguer has tested positive for coronavirus infection, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter). The prior positive test emerged two days ago.

The Yankees and the rest of the league have already halted Spring Training, of course. But this transmission is surely the result of prior interactions between the players.

Some players are still training at spring sites. MLB players have been granted permission to do so at their own election. Most minor-leaguers have been ordered home, though some — injury rehabbers and some other ad hoc cases — have remained. The Yankees had already closed their facility after the initial positive test.

Heyman writes that some players — it’s not clear which — will remain in self-quarantine and receive testing. It’s not known just how this most recent positive test came about — presumably, the player showed symptoms — or precisely what broader testing plans the Yankees have.

There’s a broader point of controversy surrounding the apparent ability of sports teams to command tests while they still aren’t widely available. The Yankees previously indicated they had only procured one test (the previous positive).

MLB Teams Each Pledge $1 Million To Cover Lost Wages For Park Employees During Shutdown

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All 30 Major League clubs have established $1MM funds to cover the lost wages of their gameday and event staffs during the league-wide shutdown, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports (via Twitter). MLB commissioner Rob Manfred offered the following statement on the teams’ actions (Twitter thread via Joel Sherman of the New York Post):

Over the past 48 hours, I have been approached by representatives of all 30 clubs to help assist the thousands of ballpark employees affected by the delay in the start of the Major League Baseball season. Motivated by desire to help some of the most valuable members of the baseball community, each Club has committed $1 million. The individual clubs will be announcing more details surrounding this support effort in their local communities. The timing of these announcements will vary because of the need to coordinate with state and local laws as well as collective bargaining obligations in an effort to maximize the benefits realized by each group of employees. I am proud that our clubs came together so quickly and uniformly to support these individuals who provide so much to the game we love.

It’s a nice gesture of goodwill and solidarity by all 30 teams, as thousands of ballpark employees throughout the league saw their livelihoods impacted and threatened by the absence of games being played. There are still, of course, other issues to address — namely the manner in which minor league players will be compensated during the hiatus.

As covered here earlier today, non-40-man players aren’t protected by the MLBPA and are currently set to go without their already meager salaries during the unexpected work stoppage. Some clubs — the Rays, Mets and Dodgers among them — are allotting a $400 weekly stipend through the end of the month, although that’s a temporary solution to a much larger-scale problem.

MLBPA Expands Stipend; Minor-Leaguers Remain In Flux

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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.

Coronavirus Updates: Draft, ASG, Workouts, Scouting

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We now know that the COVID-19 pandemic may delay the start of the Major League Baseball season until at least June or July. As of now, however, the league hasn’t indicated whether it will postpone the June 10-12 draft or the July 14 All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports. Meanwhile, the league and the union have been negotiating on payment for the players during this shutdown. MLB proposed “an initial lump payment” to the players to make up for missed checks early in the season, and then the MLBPA countered that offer, Sherman writes. It’s unclear how much progress the two sides have made in those talks, though. The league plans to turn its attention to payment for minor leaguers and stadium and team personnel once it’s through ironing out how to proceed with players who are on 40-man rosters, per Sherman.

  • Yankees players have been staying in Florida to work out, but manager Aaron Boone admitted Monday that might not be feasible anymore, Bryan Hoch of MLB.com relays. Boone, whose organization had a minor leaguer test positive for coronavirus last week, acknowledged that “it’s getting more and more challenging” to carry out present plans, adding that he’ll likely return to New York in the next couple days. It remains to be seen whether members of the club will follow suit in returning to their homes, but if they do, Boone’s confident they’ll be able to stay in shape by working out on their own.
  • Mariners players have been exiting their facility in Arizona, according to Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. The M’s are down to 28 players remaining there, and they sent all of their non-roster invitees home.
  • Count former Mets general manager and current Athletics consultant Sandy Alderson among those dumbfounded that independent workouts are still going on at all. He expects them to end in the immediate future. “I would be surprised if anybody is in camp after the next two or three days, because No. 1 it doesn’t make any sense from a baseball standpoint, if the season is not going to start until maybe June 1,” Alderson told Mike Puma of the New York Post. “And secondly it doesn’t make any sense in terms of setting an example for the rest of the population to have a bunch of athletes running around playing catch. That does not constitute social distancing.”
  • MLB has ceased all scouting activity, both foreign and domestic, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets. That’s hardly a surprising development with just about all sports on hiatus at this point. Even in-home and in-person visits have been prohibited, Rosenthal notes.

MLB Further Delays Opening Day In Accordance With CDC Recommendations

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Following last night’s recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Major League Baseball has issued a new statement confirming that Opening Day will be delayed considerably later than the original April 9 date:

Today Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr. conducted a conference call with the 30 Clubs of Major League Baseball. Following last night’s newly updated recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) restricting events of more than 50 people for the next eight weeks, the opening of the 2020 regular season will be pushed back in accordance with that guidance.

MLB will keep fans updated on decisions regarding plans for the 2020 schedule in the days and weeks ahead. The Clubs remain committed to playing as many games as possible when the season begins. We will continue to monitor ongoing events and undertake the precautions and best practices recommended by public health experts, and urge all baseball fans to follow suit. MLB extends its best wishes to all the individuals and communities who have been impacted by the coronavirus.

Eight weeks from the CDC’s new guidelines last night will push things back until May 10, although there’s no indication that that’s a firm target date. Players will surely need a second installment of Spring Training to ramp back up for game readiness, and the restrictions on the size of gatherings could (and likely will) apply to exhibition contests as well. Even that May 10 date could be optimistic insofar as resuming exhibition play; USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweeted earlier today that multiple general managers are bracing for a delay that could extend into July.

As for the “playing as many games as possible when the season begins,” that remains a challenge in its own right. Manfred said on the aforementioned conference call that owners are still hoping to play a full schedule, although characterizing that as “difficult to envision” would be putting things mildly. Even a Memorial Day start time feels somewhat optimistic at present, and that would push the standard six-month season calendar back into December. Some stadiums, of course, are domed or have retractable roofs, which could aid in playing games late in the year when weather conditions are a concern, but there are myriad logistical challenges that would go along with playing games in neutral settings as necessary late in the year.

Some have suggested vastly increasing the number of doubleheaders played throughout the season, but one can imagine substantial pushback from the MLBPA on that front. The season already has very few off-days (relative to the number of games played), and increasing workload in an effort to reduce the overall length of schedule represents a heightened injury risk.

As has been the case since the the initial two-week delay was announced last week, the unknowns overwhelmingly outweigh the certainties. There’s no immediate means of accurately forecasting the rate at which the coronoavirus will spread — at least not in such a long-term scope. The league and union will surely take the downtime to discuss matters such as scheduling, player salaries, service time, postponing the draft and All-Star Game, pushing back the trade deadline and countless other situations necessitated by the unprecedented slate of delays. As for when Opening Day will actually take place, there’s just no clear way of accurately projecting that at this time.

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