Virus a challenge for Brewers
Health remains the Brewers’ focus as the organization, like others in MLB, has positive COVID-19 tests.
Major League Baseball officials are excited to be getting back on the field in 2020, even with a greatly reduced 60-game schedule, but Milwaukee Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns left no doubt Friday what the major challenge will be for the entire sport.
“We’ve seen throughout the industry over the last week to 10 days there are positives (for COVID-19),” said Stearns, who participated with Brewers president of business operations Rick Schlesinger on a Zoom webinar with members of the media. “We’re fortunate the vast majority of them – not all of them – have been asymptomatic positives.
“We very much recognize how contagious this virus is. So, we are putting in a number of precautions. By now, everyone or most people have seen the 100-plus page operations manual. We’re going to follow everything in there and do everything we can to educate our players on how they can remain healthy, and how we can put ourselves in the best position to succeed in this environment.”
In that regard, Stearns said the Brewers have joined the growing number of teams that already have had individuals test positive for COVID-19. He didn’t differentiate whether they are players or staff members, but said they had no outward symptoms.
Stearns said players will begin arriving at Miller Park
in the coming days with intake testing for COVID-19 beginning Wednesday. Players then will undergo the usual physical exams prior to taking the field for the first full-squad workouts July 4.
“It’s exciting for all of us to be able to talk about a season,” Stearns said. “We know it’s going to be an unusual season and a different looking season. But it’s going to be a baseball season nonetheless. That’s something that is meaningful to all of us.
“We have a lot of work left to do. There are going to be many changes we’ll face going forward to get through this season. But this is a positive start.”
Stearns said the Brewers will bring approximately 45 players – the exact number is still being worked out – to Miller Park to vie for the 30-man opening day rosters. Those rosters will be reduced to 28 players two weeks into the season and then the originally planned 26 players after one month.
“We will stagger workout schedules throughout the day,” Stearns said. “At Miller Park, we’re a little more constrained from a spatial standpoint so we’ll stagger our work throughout the day. It will create a slightly longer day for our coaching staff … but we think it will be productive and efficient.”
Miller Park will open to the Milwaukee Brewers next week as the major-league baseball season restarts.
Extra group will train in Appleton
Teams are allowed to gather a total of 60 players for workouts, with those who don’t make the opening roster assigned to a “taxi squad” that will provide replacements when necessary. Stearns confirmed the Brewers’ extra group will work out in Appleton at the team’s Class A facility, which is available with no minor-league seasons this year.
Stearns said that secondary camp will open about a week to 10 days prior to the opening of the major-league season on July 23-24, and will include some younger prospects who aren’t ready to play for the Brewers this year but can continue their development by working out.
Schlesinger said the team is still awaiting the official schedule for the 60game season, including whether the Brewers will open at home or on the road.
“We anticipate the release of the schedule shortly,” Schlesinger said. “I know the number of games and our opponents but I don’t know the actual home or road dates at this point. We’re eager to see it. It’s a different kind of season with every game having a disproportionate impact. It should be sprint with 60 games.”
To keep travel to a minimum with hopes of limiting exposure to the virus, teams will play geographically. The Brewers will play 40 games against NL Central opponents and the other 20 across leagues against AL Central foes.
“The way we’re going to approach this is we’re waking up in the middle of the season on July 24th and it’s a five-way race for the NL Central championship,” Stearns said. “That’s probably not too dissimilar than what we thought it would look like at the front end of the season.
“We thought this was going to be a very highly contested division with the vast majority of the teams very strong this year. So, that’s where we are. We’ve got an exciting pennant race coming up. I don’t know that anyone feels we’re in a mad dash to the finish line. We’ve learned the last couple of seasons that even a month can change the outcome of a season.
“We’re going to manage our roster in a manner that allows us to be successful over the course of the 60 games.”
Fanless games will hurt bottom line
During the course of bitter negotiations with the players union that resulted in a 60-game season with players being paid full prorated salaries, owners made it clear that with every game they’d lose more money with no fans in the stands. Schlesinger addressed the financial impact that will have on the Brewers, who without major local TV/radio contracts rely heavily on attendance for revenue.
“The Brewers generate a large portion of our revenues from admission revenues – tickets, parking, merchandise,” Schlesinger said. “The loss of that revenue is severe and impactful. So, 2020 is going to be an extremely difficult financial picture for our organization.
“I’m not worried about the long-term stability or health of the organization. It’s way too early to say what impact we’ll have going forward next year and the year after. The projections for 2021, a key variable for us is the ability to have our stands full. We’d love to be able to say in 2021 we’d have full stands, but right now those kinds of prognostications are premature.”
Schlesinger said the financial hit to the organization necessitated furloughing some members of the business operation for an unspecified period.
“We did have to make the difficult decision to furlough a number of our business operations employees, simply because the absence of games with fans meant there wasn’t work that justified the continued employment,” he said.
“We’re going to bring people back on a business-needs basis, and obviously with no fans in the stands initially, I don’t anticipate a number of changes in the status of our furloughed employees.”
Asked if he had any hope that even a limited number of fans would be allowed in Miller Park at some point during the 30-game home schedule, Schlesinger said, “Right now, we’re under the guidelines of the City of Milwaukee. Those guidelines do not permit us to have fans at the games.
“If there is an opening of the city and a way to accommodate some fans, we’d absolutely love to do it. I don’t anticipate we’ll have the opportunity for a full stadium in 2020 but if we can have a limited number of fans, it would be an aspirational goal of ours.”
Of trying to navigate even a shortened season with the constant threat of the coronavirus, Stearns said, “We know there are likely going to be (test) positives throughout the course of the season. We’re going to have to adjust to that and recognize that.
“From a competitive standpoint, playing without fans is going to be tough because players absolutely feed off the energy that’s in the stands every single night. That will definitely be an adjustment. The new schedule will be an adjustment. The travel will be an adjustment. All of this is going to be new and a different.
“But we all recognize within the industry that the biggest thing we have to focus on, and the biggest challenge for us, is keeping everyone safe and healthy.”
On and off the field, the challenges will be constantly coming at teams, even with only 60 games being played to get to the postseason. As for those who suggest it’s not worth the effort to play less than half of a normal season, Stearns begged to differ.
“Every season is sacred and as we’ve gone through this, the prospect of losing an entire season was really tough for us to wrap our heads around,” he said. “You never know how many seasons you get. We all have a finite amount of time to spend in the game, so to know we’re going to have a season, it’s really important.
“Yes, it’s going to be a different season but it’s going to be meaningful. It is a Major League Baseball season and it carries that weight with it. I’m very excited that we’re going to have a season. I think it’s important to do what we can to make this work and make this happen. We’re certainly going to give it our best effort.”