Playing the waiting game stressful, too

Last weekend — for the second time in a week — the Pirates were sitting and waiting to hear exactly when they would play their next game.

Their series with Cincinnati was eventually canceled after someone with the Reds tested positive for COVID-19, and it will be made up later in the season.

For pretty much the entire day Saturday, though, all anybody knew for sure was that the last two games of the series were postponed. For a time, it seemed they might make them up in a doubleheader Monday because both teams had that day off. The other option was to make them up on a future date.

As that decision was being mulled, all the Pirates players could do was hold tight in their hotel until the choice was made.

“Saturday, basically all I did was sit in my room and play Fortnite with [pitchers Chad Kuhl, Chris Stratton and Jameson Taillon],” catcher Jacob Stallings said. “We weren’t really allowed to do much else. We could go out on a walk and maybe you go and walk and order food to go, but we couldn’t go stand in lines or anything.

“And then Sunday was more stressful and more up in the air because there were just kind of mixed feelings about playing on Monday with the incubation period. And some guys were definitely uncomfortable with that, and ultimately MLB decided for us not to play.”

That last point is an important one to Stallings — and, apparently, some others. For one, manager Derek Shelton said that, as far as he knows, Major League Baseball and the players association take feelings into account with these decisions; the players are human, too.

With these cancellations, much of the focus turns to how a baseball team can possibly keep operating with intermittent stops and starts followed by long breaks. That could mess with players’ routines, and Stallings acknowledged that is true. The same will be true during the rest of the season, when the Pirates will play many games in a short span.

Stallings said he is not personally as concerned with that as much as he is the potential proliferation of infections around baseball or the Pirates clubhouse.

“I would say for me, the more challenging part is just the big picture part of it,” Stallings said. “Obviously, MLB and the teams and the players want to get the season in, but with the outbreaks, it’s just concerning, not only from a baseball playing games standpoint, but just from health and safety.

“We don’t know much about the virus in the grand scheme of things, and I was right next to a lot of their players for a couple days, so there was anxiety for me, just, ‘What if? What if? What if?’ Thankfully, all of us are testing negative.”

Roster moves I

Right-handed reliever Tyler Bashlor, acquired from the New York Mets for cash considerations more than two weeks ago, has been called up from the alternate training site in Altoona and reliever Cody Ponce was optioned back to Altoona.

“I mean, I was excited about it,” Bashlor said of his trade. “I like the Mets, they’re a good organization, but I think I was just stuck in a rut there. Wasn’t in the best of places, so getting here to Pittsburgh, smaller city, more my speed. So I’m pretty excited about it.”

Whenever Bashlor gets into a game for the Pirates, it will be his first live action this season. He didn’t make an appearance for the Mets this year before being traded. He did, however, make 48 appearances for the Mets over the past two seasons, accruing a 5.33 ERA and striking out 45 batters over 54 innings.

Roster moves II

Right-hander Yacksel Rios, who was called up from the Pirates’ alternate training squad in Altoona after righthander Michael Feliz was sent to the 45-day injured list, also has been sent to the IL. Rios’ stint is only 10 days, retroactive to Saturday, and is for right shoulder inflammation. The Pirates recalled right-hander Nick Mears, who threw one inning against Detroit Aug. 9, before being optioned to Altoona.