MLB players worry about health with potential extended season

As Major League Baseball and its players' union works to contemplate various ways to create a schedule for baseball's return, whenever the coronavirus pandemic subsides, some players have shared their distain for an extended season and their health

Saturday, Dodgers Clayton Kershaw was one of the first players to share their opinion on the potential extended season.

Cincinnati Reds catcher Tucker Barnhart who is a union representative, shared his concern that trying to cram games, and potentially extending the season into late November or December, could lead to more injuries. "The player safety piece is a big thing," said Barnhart on a conference call with reporters Monday.

"Moving forward, I don't think you can do things that are going to compromise the integrity of next season, as well. What I mean by that is forcing the issue of getting so many games in that you risk injury, and you risk major injury to players, because you are trying to get in as many games as you can."
"This is all assumptions and thoughts from me specifically — it's not from the union — but you're going to have to protect us as players," he continued. "And if you can't do that, I think that would be where I personally would kind of draw the line."

Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Jameson Taillon shares the same concern for players safety, even though he was not scheduled to pitch this season. The 28-year-old has been ruled out for 2020 while recovering from a second reconstructive surgery on his right elbow. He brought up the idea of trying to return this season, if it was extended into November, but said that has been "shut down pretty quickly."

When asked about the idea of how the altered season could affect players he said, "This is a unique situation. We're going to have to be careful health-wise."

Right now, no one knows when baseball or any other suspended sports will resume. Simply because no one knows when any parts of life may return to normal in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, three-quarters of a million people around the world have become infected and over 35,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. They also have counts that include more than 140,000 infections and more than 2,500 deaths in the U.S.

Spring training was halted on March 12; opening day was supposed to be last week and won't happen any earlier than mid-May.

"At this point, it's hard to say what can or should be done. MLB is exhausting all of their brainpower and manpower, along with the 30 clubs, to come up with some ideas and what's the best way to play a regular season in as many games as possible and get to a playoff scenario," said Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo, whose team have made the grounds of its spring facility available to public testing for COVID-19.

"As the commissioner said, we're going to need to get creative," Rizzo added. "But beyond that, we're just speculating on all of these things."

The MLB and its players' union are hoping to try and complete initial discussions regarding scheduling by April 10, and among the proposals currently under consideration: pushing back the end of the season, even if it involves the use of neutral sites and domes to avoid colder weather in many cities; increasing the amount of doubleheaders to get more games in per week than a normal season; playing games without spectators or even potentially changing the post-season format.

"We've been told," said Taillon, a union rep, "there's no such thing as a bad idea right now. "

Barnhart, is still trying to be realistic about what is going to drive the ultimate decisions regarding what a season might look like once baseball returns.

"It goes without saying that, as players, we want to play as many games (as possible), not only because we love playing, but also we want to make as much money as possible. That's the God's honest truth about it," he said. "And the same goes with ownership and all of that. So everybody wants to make money."

Source: Sportsnet

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