No easy answers for how we talk about MLB 2020
ROBINSON Cano “was not on site here the last few days,” Brodie Van Wagenen said Friday, at a rainy Citi Field, and no one owes us more information than that. Cano deserves to have his privacy respected. Yet in this age of coronavirus, how do we reconcile wishing the best for Cano, no matter what’s going on with him, and analyzing what an extended absence — or even merely a setback in preparation for the regular season — means for the Mets’ playoff chances?
It’s a ghoulish situation that Major League Baseball set up for itself — and that all of the major North American sports intend to follow, to be clear — that we find ourselves navigating. I mean, really, are Mets fans happy that Braves stud first baseman Freddie Freeman has coronavirus, which in turn spooked his teammate Nick Markakis into opting out? Are you good with the Nats losing face of the franchise Ryan Zimmerman to an opt-out because he has a newborn baby and a mother at high risk?
“I think we’re all sympathetic,” Van Wagenen said during a Zoom call with the media. “I’m sympathetic to anyone who gets sick or who con- tracts this virus. Personally, I’ve dealt with it in my own family and I’ve dealt with it with friends. And I know this population has dealt with tragedy in one degree of separation.” (That’s a shout-out to Post photographer Anthony Causi, who died of COVID-19 in April. Thanks, Brodie. It’s not the same here at the ballpark without you, Anthony.)
Van Wagenen continued: “And so when we hear other people get the virus, the first instinct is, “I hope they’re OK. I hope their symptoms are minimized, and I hope that it doesn’t progress into something serious and potentially life-threatening. And then, beyond that, obviously as it relates to baseball, for any player, you never hope for illness or injury and you hope they can return quickly.”
Sure, you never hope for anything, but an oblique strain, for instance, isn’t contagious, and if general managers took truth serum, many would admit to not being heartbroken if a rival’s important player went down with a pedestrian ailment that didn’t threaten his career or especially his life. It’s OK, they’re human.
The cruel truth is that, one week into spring training 2.0, the Mets have made up ground on paper amidst their ultracompetitive division. In addition to Freeman’s illness and Markakis’ opt-out, veteran starting pitcher Felix Hernandez, who had appeared to win a job with Atlanta during spring training 1.0, also opted out. The defending champion Nats saw pitcher Joe Ross join Zimmerman on the opt-out list. Phillies third baseman Scott Kingery is very behind following a rough battle with his disease.
No Met has opted out, and Van Wagenen said, “We haven’t had any players express the potential of opting out.” No Mets player has declared himself as testing positive for coronavirus, although Van Wagenen said last week that one player on the club’s 40-man roster had done so; both Cano and reliever Brad Brach haven’t been around, with no explanation provided, and MLB announced Friday that 71 players tested positive to date, an average of 2.4 per team. A total of 28 teams have seen either a player or staff member test positive, MLB said.
Hence the tempered reaction. Do we contemplate whether Jeff McNeil would slide from third base to second, with J.D. Davis manning the hot corner, if Cano winds up out for a while? Do we address the bullpen’s compromised depth without Brach? We kind of have to if there’s actually going to be a season starting (for the Mets) on July 24, right?
“At this point, we’re a week in,” Van Wagenen said. “Two weeks is a long time in this environment to know what your club is going to look like by Opening Day. So we’re really trying to focus here. Not trying to handicap what’s going on with other clubs because I know, like us, things can change pretty quickly.”
Less than an hour later, the converted agent Van Wagenen’s former client Buster Posey opted out of 2020. It’s that kind of season. The only path to enjoying it on some level might be to keep talking things through, figuring it all out, together.