Jays boss Shapiro fears Opening Day may be months away
Remember the glory days of spring training when we looked ahead to Sunday afternoon and a charter flight whisking the Toronto Blue Jays from St. Petersburg, Fla., to Montreal for two more exhibition games?
Imagine it being just four more sleeps until the US$80-million-man, Hyun-Jin Ryu, made his debut as the Jays’ Opening Day starter at the Rogers Centre this Thursday afternoon.
Like the rest of us, Jays president Mark Shapiro recognizes what a world of difference 10 days can make as the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic alters our reality almost hourly and, like the rest of the sporting universe, has thrown Major League Baseball into a state of upheaval. There is no normal yet or in the foreseeable future, and with all the uncertainty, Shapiro quite rightly has focused on the health (mental and physical) and safety of those in the Jays organization.
That said, it’s impossible to escape the disappointment both of what was supposed to happen this week — beginning with a pair of games against the Yankees at Olympic Stadium — and the looming uncertainty.
“The reality certainly looks like we are not dealing with days and likely not weeks but closer to months,” Shapiro said in a Sunday morning conference call with reporters.
Let that sink in for a moment. Even though we might have hoped for better, the medical reality is that baseball may be back some time in 2020, but if it does happen, it’s going to be a while.
As you would expect, Shapiro has been in close contact with colleagues throughout the league and at MLB headquarters. And through the multitude of scenarios being discussed both seriously and dreamily, COVID-19 is both the great unknown and the most significant player.
“I do think that we’re, by and large, waiting for some sort of flattening of the curve and recognition that we have done our best to limit the strain on the health care system and the economic system both here in Canada as well as in the United States,” Shapiro said. “And until that time, the exact outcome and impact on our schedule and the corresponding business that cascades off that really can’t be determined.”
Shapiro and his front office, as well as colleagues around the league, are certainly operating under the assumption there will be baseball at some point this year. But any prediction on when the game might resume, how it will unfold and what sort of schedule emerges is wildly premature speculation. Until the curve is flattened and we’re allowed out of our homes and to breathe and congregate with others, the revised opening day will not be known for certain.
Shapiro’s best guess? Let’s talk about another four-week “spring training” that may actually bleed into early summer as starting pitchers rebuild their pitch count to a competitive threshold.
“I would say we have a lot of time to spend before we actually need to worry about that,” Shapiro said. “It’s hard to imagine any scenario knowing that so many players are not even having access to throwing or hitting at all. It’s harder to imagine we could get ready faster than four weeks — but that will be legislated at the league level.”
Consider that on March 12 the Jays were playing a split-squad doubleheader in Dunedin and Bradenton and less than a week later front office and other team staff were on a charter flight back to Toronto. Three players remain at the Dunedin base — pitchers Ryu, Shun Yamaguchi and Rafael Dolis — due to immigration issues, while others who live in the area (Bo Bichette and Nate Pearson to name a pair) also remain in Florida.
Reticent to talk numbers in terms of a season length, it is clear Shapiro doesn’t expect anywhere near a full schedule.
If a season doesn’t start until June, say, that much is obvious and the club has already issued layoff notices for April to some 800 game-day staff at the Rogers Centre. But 140 games or 120,
100 — pick a number — are all mere suppositions based on so much more than what happens between the chalk.