Red Sox president expects MLB to make up any lost games
Eventually, the Red Sox expect that all 162 games will be played.
The start of the Major League Baseball season has been delayed "at least" two weeks due to the coronavirus, but that timeline seems generous. It's hard to imagine games starting back up anytime in April, given the upward trends of confirmed cases and medical experts' projections going forward.
Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said during a conference call Friday afternoon that all players are now free to go home. When the coronavirus dissipates enough to allow them to return, they'll need another few weeks to train before the regular season could begin, by Bloom's estimation.
At this point, playing games in May seems like a stretch.
Opening Day was supposed to be on March 26.
Nobody knows when
But because of the fluidity of the situation, MLB has announced no firm plans on how it will handle the games that are missed. The Red Sox are expecting to play all 162.
"The current thinking in MLB is that the games will be added on the back end of the schedule, but it's subject to change as the situation develops," Red Sox president Sam Kennedy said.
"We have not cancelled any of these games. We're looking at rescheduling."
If the games started on May 1, that would leave an extra five weeks of regular season games to be played starting after the season ends on Sept. 27.
That would put the start of the playoffs sometime in November, and World Series games sometime after Thanksgiving, assuming a normal playoff schedule.
It's difficult to fathom, given the serious nature of the virus. As it is, MLB may have kept its slate of exhibition games alive too long.
The Red Sox were not "entirely comfortable" doing it, but continued to host three spring training games even after the country's leading health organization said it was unsafe for older adults to gather in public places, Kennedy said Friday.
It was last Thursday when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its website to announce all older adults and anyone with underlying illnesses should avoid crowds and "stay home as much as possible" to best avoid the coronavirus.
But MLB continued packing folks into stadiums in Arizona and Florida, where many of the fans in the area are retired. The Red Sox packed about 10,000 people in JetBlue Park three more times after the CDC's advisory last Thursday, playing games on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday.
Kennedy was asked why the team felt comfortable with the decision to keep playing games.
"I wouldn't say that anyone was entirely comfortable," he said. "As soon as we learned of the virus, it set off a viewing of uncertainty. However, we followed the direction of CDC and the WHO and Major League Baseball's
guidance with respect to precautions and steps and measures to take in Fort Myers.
"We determined that it was safe and OK to go forward at that time. But obviously the situation has changed and deteriorated rapidly, so we adjusted on the fly as you saw yesterday."
While MLB took action to keep players away from reporters starting on Tuesday, they didn't suspend exhibition games until Thursday, a week after CDC posted its advisory.
Friday, the Sox announced they closed JetBlue Park to the public through at least Sunday. The park's closing will affect all fans, media members and family members of players and staff. Players are still welcome to show up.
Going forward, the Red Sox are uncertain when play will resume, but Kennedy said there are options being discussed.
"Every different scenario has been discussed," he said. "We're talking about having games in spring training facilities to ramp back up because there may be some states on lockdown. Playing games in empty stadiums has been discussed as well. Certainly no firm plans, but just about every variety has been discussed and obviously there will have to be agreement on whatever plan we come up with."
Everybody will be involved
There also needs to be a mutual understanding with the players' association and local governments.
"The country and the New England region, we need that distraction," Kennedy said. "And it's important that we're all working toward that goal."
The Red Sox have already asked their Boston-based employees to work from home amidst the crisis.
As of now, they have no confirmed coronavirus cases among their employees or players.
"We've had folks that we've sent home who have not felt well and we've been encouraging people to stay away to the extent they don't feel well," Kennedy said. "But right now, we do not have any positive tests.
"But we are realistic that, given what's happening in Boston and Massachusetts, it feels like a sense of inevitability that we'll have a positive test from either someone who has been at Fenway Park or a member of our front office family."
“Every different scenario has been discussed. We’re talking about having games in spring training facilities to ramp back up because there may be some states on lockdown. Playing games in empty stadiums has been discussed as well. Certainly no firm plans, but just about every variety has been discussed and obviously there will have to be agreement on whatever plan we come up with.” SAM KENNEDY, RED SOX TEAM PRESIDENT AND CEO