GM says discipline key to completion of season

Despite glitches, Cherington offers praise for MLB’s testing protocols

While acknowledging there have been some shortcomings, Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said he has no issue with Major League Baseball’s COVID-19 testing setup, which has forced several clubs around the league to cancel or delay workouts because results had not been delivered in a timely manner.

Speaking with local reporters Wednesday via Zoom, Cherington actually took things a step further and praised how MLB has handled the testing of thousands of players, coaches and other team personnel.

“It would be hard to imagine doing something like this in a way where there was zero hiccups at all,” Cherington said. “I’m quite impressed with what the league and the [MLB Players Association] and the teams are doing collectively around this to give players a chance to play safely.”

Cherington said that, as the GM, he’s tested less frequently than his players, but it’s still a regular thing. Why Cherington feels that “it’s going well” has to do with what he believes is a fairly massive undertaking, with MLB converting its PED testing lab in Salt Lake City, Utah, into a COVID-19 testing site.

There’s no way to do that smoothly, Cherington argued. Especially when we’re talking about so many people in such a

short period of time.

While MLB had originally hoped for a 24-hour turnaround on results, it’s been 48 and sometimes 72 hours. It was especially problematic around the Fourth of July, and the league also has seen at least one false positive and another test being lost.

The Pirates have mainly been spared from issues that have occurred around the league, save for test results in Altoona taking longer than expected to return. Those delayed the start of minor league workouts by three days.

“If you think about what’s been required to set this system up — from how the tests are done, the number of people involved, the frequency, setting up the lab space to get results back as soon as possible — and the hundreds of people involved in that — from the league, from the [players union], from teams, from the lab itself — [it has required a] massive amount of communication and logistics,” Cherington said.

“To me, it’s just really impressive that we’re at this point. Does it mean every test gets back exactly when you hope? No. But I think we’d also be surprised if that were the case.”

All throughout the process of figuring out a way to return to play, much of which involved money and trying to find common ground between the players and the league, Cherington remained optimistic baseball would be back.

A big reason why, Cherington explained on several occasions, was that he saw the desire on both sides to get something done.

With COVID-19, obviously there are factors outside of baseball’s control.

However, Cherington echoed that same sentiment Wednesday — that he thought MLB could get through a 60-game season without any sort of virus-related stoppages because everyone has seemingly grasped the severity of the situation.

“I continue to be optimistic because of the effort that I know is happening every day with teams, at the league level, with the cooperation of the players association and at the lab,” he said. “There are factors outside of that that we don’t fully control. We have to take that really seriously. We have to be extremely disciplined. Our players need to be really disciplined. Everybody needs to be really disciplined if we’re going to get to games, pull this off, play successfully and get through a season.”

The Pirates will have their first exhibition game Saturday, hosting the

Cleveland Indians at PNC Park. There will be no fans for that one, the same for any games in the foreseeable future.

While Cherington responded, “I don’t know,” when asked whether he thinks fans will be allowed back in 2020, he did echo a sentiment from owner Bob Nutting and president Travis Williams when it comes to potentially playing in front of a live audience.

“We hope so,” Cherington said. “We also know that we will absolutely put health and safety first, follow guidance from health experts, follow guidance from local and state government and the league. Right now there will not be fans in the ballpark. We’re a baseball team, so of course at some point we hope that changes. But we will focus on all those other things first.”

For what it’s worth, the

Pirates did take some additional steps toward safety Wednesday, installing green tents around the backstop and next to the bullpen. The idea was to give players and coaches more room to maintain proper social distancing.

Cherington, manager Derek Shelton and Pirates players have repeatedly praised director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk, in addition to how seriously the organization has taken the pandemic, though the inherent risk will increase soon when the Pirates start traveling for games.

“We got to do our best every day to be disciplined,” Cherington said. “I remain confident that we will and therefore hopeful that we’ll get to games and get through the season.”