Baseball issues schedule
Slow coronavirus test results canceled some team workouts Monday, although Major League Baseball pushed ahead by announcing a 60-game schedule. The D-Backs are set to open July 24 in San Diego.
On the day Major League Baseball released each team’s 60-game schedule, the league had to combat a testing issue that raised doubts among some players about the viability of staging a season amid a pandemic.
Though several teams were forced to cancel workouts because test results were slow to be returned, the Diamondbacks delayed their workout on Monday long
enough to get the results they needed.
Unless there are more delays that disrupt the entire process, the Diamondbacks will open the shortened season on July 24 in San Diego.
The team had a number of tests that were previously outstanding and did not feel comfortable allowing those players and staff in the ballpark until the club had viewed the results, according to a team spokesman.
Bu the Diamondbacks received an “overwhelming majority” of those results early Monday afternoon. Not all of them came back in time — and those players whose results remained in limbo did not participate on Monday — but it was a large enough group that the team opted to remain on schedule.
The club was planning to play fourto-six innings of an intrasquad game late Monday afternoon.
Based on the schedule revealed Monday, the Diamondbacks and Padres will open the 2020 season with a four-game series at San Diego’s Petco Park. The Diamondbacks will then travel to Texas for two games against the Rangers before returning to Chase Field to open the home portion of their schedule with a four-game set against the Los Angeles Dodgers beginning on July 30.
The Diamondbacks will play each team in their division 10 times, with seven of their 10 against the Dodgers and Rockies coming at home and seven of the 10 against the Padres and Giants on the road.
Their non-division games will all come against American League West teams. That allows the league to schedule as many games as possible in primetime for the purpose of increasing television viewership.
The Diamondbacks will stick with 6:40 p.m. start times for home games while mixing in a handful of 3 p.m. starts for weekday day games. Some home games against the Rangers and Houston Astros will begin at 6 p.m. in order to start them in the road teams’ primetime windows.
“We worked closely with Fox Sports Arizona before we did anything,” Diamondbacks CEO Derrick Hall said. “We went to them and asked what their preference was. It’s as important a year that they get to call shots as any. Everything is about TV and radio this year. We consulted with them and we’ve both come to a good conclusion.”
The schedule reveal was overshadowed by the testing snafu that forced the Astros and Washington Nationals to cancel their workouts on Monday morning.
“Weird how these schedules getting released are going to be irrelevant if the testing process doesn’t (get) figured out even a little bit,” Milwaukee Brewers lefty Brett Anderson wrote on Twitter.
Major League Baseball issued a statement in which it acknowledged “several situations (that) included unforeseen delays.” The Oakland Athletics’ test samples apparently were not sent to the lab on Sunday but remained in the Bay Area. There also were reports of testers not showing up at the Los Angeles Angels’ facility over the weekend.
The issues prompted several players throughout the league to give voice to concerns about whether baseball can pull off the season safely.
“I feel like deep down, every player has it in the back of their mind that this is all going to fall apart,” Athletics lefty Jake Diekman told the
San Francisco
Chronicle.
Said Chicago Cubs star Kris Bryant: “I wanted to play this year because I felt that it would be safe and I would be comfortable. Honestly, I don’t really feel that way.”
The Diamondbacks have been inconvenienced by how long it has taken for results to come back. Three players — outfielders David Peralta and Kole Calhoun and reliever Kevin Ginkel — have not participated in any of the first three days of workouts, and Hall said their absence has partly been because of the lag in testing.
“It is a result of that,” Hall said. “Either we’re waiting on the results or we can’t say (what the result was) or, you know, quite honestly, if guys aren’t feeling good, part of the protocol is don’t show up.”
Still, Hall said he is satisfied with the way the testing procedures have gone so far.
“Obviously, we had a delay today,” he said. “A little bit of a glitch. I think, overall, as much as they’ve had to conquer, it’s been very smooth. There’s going to be some issues. I don’t think we’ll see anything like this again, like we had on the holiday weekend. I think it’s been addressed. …
“I think we knew it was going to be that way and there would be some bumps in the road. But it will get smoother than it already has been.”