Citing the "delicate balance" of potentially starting the 2020 MLB season amid the coronavirus pandemic, MLBPA chief Tony Clark said Monday that he hopes the season can begin "sooner rather than later."
But whether or not the season resumes soon or at all remains to be seen.
"Despite all that has been floated and all the rhetoric that is out there, we have not received anything formal that details an actual plan," Clark told ESPN's Marly Rivera when asked about Carlos Correa's comment about there not yet being the "right" plan out there. "To Carlos' point, unless or until we see and receive an actual proposal with a plan or plans -- because my guess is there's going to need to be flexibility in whatever is going to be considered -- it's all assumptions. It lends itself to the uncertainty because there's a lot of ideations, but not any substance behind them just yet. I don't know that there is a definitive plan yet."
As MLB and the players have discussed scenarios for the potential resumption of the season, lots of what has been discussed has trickled out, including staging some or all of the season at one, two, or three centralized locations and the possibility of having games played in teams' regular season home ballparks.
When it comes to the current lack of a "definitive plan," SNY's Andy Martino reported on April 28 that all sides involved in the planning process continue to hope for the regular season to get underway by July and the potential that MLB and the players could come to an agreement before the end of May regarding what the plan to restart looks like.
Under the above timeline, a second spring training of sorts would likely take place in June
Of all the ideas floated, all have included strict social distancing measures, a coronavirus testing component, and no fans in attendance -- at least at the outset.
Noting that the players want to play, Clark discussed the difficulty of the current situation and all the moving parts.
"We'll continue to work internally against the backdrop of all the information and experience we can gather, and then hope to be able to work alongside the league to find that right spot in time to get us back on the field," he said. "And we do hope it is sooner rather than later."
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