Intangibles might be measured in wins this season for D-Backs, foes
Diamondbacks closer Archie Bradley walked into the trainer’s room one day last week to find a teammate atop a table, maskless. ● “No big deal, he had just taken it off,” Bradley recalled. “But I walked over and handed him one.” ● The moment serves as an example of the kind of behavior that could make or break a season for any of baseball’s 30 teams this year. Major League Baseball is trying to stage a season amidst a pandemic. One misstep by anyone involved could bring down the sport’s apparatus. ● The game is going to need good behavior. It is going to need compliance. It is going to need leadership. ● Baseball people use the word “makeup” as a sort of catch-all term that applies to a player’s intangibles, like his work ethic, maturity or decision-making. A player’s makeup is always considered important. Is it twice as important in the COVID-19 era? Three times?
“Highlighted to whatever degree you want to highlight it, yes,” Diamondbacks General Manager Mike Hazen said. “I think that discipline, maturity, leadership, all of those things are going to play a huge role in our ability to counteract something that nobody really knows where it comes from, in a way.”
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Consider the ramifications of a positive test – setting aside, of course, the potential health complications both short- and long-term. And also setting aside baseball’s doomsday scenario in which the virus spreads quickly through a clubhouse and forces the bulk of a team to the COVID-19 list.
For some, a bad case of the virus can be far more than just a 10- to 14-day absence. In the case of infielder Scott Kingery, it took him a month from the onset of symptoms until he was cleared to participate at camp with the Philadelphia Phillies.
“It’s not just a two-week thing,” said Kingery, who dealt with headaches, fever, fatigue, chills and shortness of breath. “I think there’s some stuff with the testing that (shows) the virus can stay in your body for a lot longer than we think. Because of all the protocols you have to go through, it’s been about a month-long thing. That’s going to be half of the season if you get it during the season.”
And getting cleared is not the same as being ready to return to big-league action. It could take weeks longer for a player to finally become game ready.
Imagine if a team’s two best pitchers or its Nos. 3 and 4 hitters are suddenly lost for a month. One bad day of incoming test results could be the equivalent of the second baseman, shortstop and center fielder colliding in pursuit of a shallow pop fly. In a 60-game season, it might be too much to overcome.
Baseball did not opt for a bubble plan, but Diamondbacks players say they will need to, in effect, create one if they are going to make it through the season healthy. Bradley said the players already have committed as much to one another.
“Not with signing any papers, but we’ve all made a verbal commitment to do the right thing,” he said. “And whatever that right thing is, it’s staying accountable to it.
“I think now more than ever, myself, Robbie (Ray), some of the older guys are really going to have to step up and lead by example in terms of baseball and in terms of protocol. It’s easy to get lax in this stuff and fall into the baseball routine, but we have to stay on top of our protocol. That’s very vital for us.”
Hazen points to things he has seen during workouts at Chase Field as evidence of how seriously his team is taking precautions. He sees Eduardo Escobar working out and playing games with a mask. He sees Ketel Marte wearing one during workouts. He sees a slew of players sitting in the stands during games, distancing themselves from each other, all with their faces covered.
“I think it’s going to require players reminding players,” Hazen said. “I think it’s going to be staff reminding players. I think it’s going to be players reminding staff. This isn’t a hierarchical paradigm that’s going to exist this year. This is about people checking people and ensuring that we’re all doing whatever we can, knowing we’re not going to be perfect.”