Major League Baseball firmly reminded its 30 teams Monday that the change in year doesn’t change the sport’s DEFCON 1 stance against the novel coronavirus.
An industry source confirmed a USA Today report that the clubs received a memo from MLB’s central office instructing them to limit access to their spring-training facilities. Offenders “will be subject to significant discipline by the Commissioner,” the memo read. Before the pandemic hit, teams embraced the early arrival of players on their grounds.
The memos echoed similar orders from last year, when COVID-19 first shut down much of the world, as MLB worked to heighten awareness of health and safety efforts. The strict safety protocols from last year — including mandates like the wearing of masks at all times, temperature checks and tracking of all players on site — remain intact.
Until spring training begins, the only players allowed at the team complexes will be those with permanent residences nearby, those who require medical care from team officials and those approved to attend a team mini-camp under the terms of the Basic Agreement. As pointed out in the memo, MLB won’t have access to the intensive COVID testing protocol it used to get through the 2020 campaign until spring training starts.
Spring training is scheduled to begin in mid-February, with Opening Day set for April 1, although the realities of the COVID timeline — as vaccines for the disease should become increasingly available each passing month — call into question whether that timeline makes the most sense.
