Giants getting comfortable with masks.
Giants get comfortable masking up ... and asking umpires to do the same
In a season that’s already been shortened by more than 100 games due to the coronavirus pandemic and labor disagreements between owners and the MLB Players Association, simply getting to the finish line will be an accomplishment.
Players, coaches, team staffers and executives across the sport all share the same goal of winning the 2020 World Series, but completing an abbreviated 60-game season in a
manner that ensures the health and safety of all those involved will feel like a victory for many.
As Giants outfielder Hunter Pence said, there are 30 MLB clubs now acting as one.
“We’re trying to take as few risks as we can and be as smart as we can,” Pence said in a recent Zoom call with reporters. “It’s a weird paradox. We’re 30 teams but also one team, because if any one person messes it up, he can mess it up for everyone. It’s one of those interesting seasons that’s pretty special in that we’re all working together and all these decisions add up in a big way.”
Pence, 37, is among the players taking extra precautions to stay healthy during the pandemic. During a nearly four-month layoff from the end of spring training to the start of summer workouts, he was reluctant to leave the house and unwilling to train with peers when others expressed interest.
Since the Giants returned to Oracle Park, Pence has been receiving instruction from coaches while wearing a mask and he’s always donning a face covering indoors. When Pence sat in an empty room to talk with reporters on Zoom, a man referred to by teammates as “The Reverend,” left the mask on to practice what he preaches.
“If I say ‘wear a mask’, it’s one thing,” Giants CEO Larry Baer said. “If Hunter Pence says it, it’s another thing.”
Pence won’t wear his mask in the batter’s box or out in left field, but there are Giants players who’ve been spotted with masks on the diamond during intrasquad games this week. Infielder Donovan Solano and prospect Will Wilson have played the field with a face covering while first basemen Pablo Sandoval and Wilmer Flores have pulled theirs up when runners have reached first base.
“It’s just whenever a guy gets on base, the hitter doesn’t have the mask on so it’s just ... he’s like right next to me so that’s what we’re avoiding,” Flores explained. “That’s why every time someone is on base, I’ll put my mask on. But just there, that’s it. Whenever I’m out there, I’m not wearing a mask.”
It’s unclear if any catchers plan to wear masks during games, but the Giants have encouraged home plate umpires to do so in an effort to protect their players. MLB umpires are not required to wear face coverings during games this season, but after firstyear Giants manager Gabe Kapler was asked Monday
if he was comfortable watching Doug Eddings and Bill Miller oversee an intrasquad game without masks, a change took place.
When Eddings and Miller returned to Oracle Park to umpire intrasquad games on Tuesday and Wednesday, they both wore face coverings.
“Bill and Doug, I give them a ton of credit because they’re super humble and open, and so our training staff had a few extra very, very comfortable masks and those guys did a great job,” Kapler said.
MLB testing protocols require players, coaches and umpires to be tested every other day for COVID-19, so on-field personnel should have increased confidence — relative to the rest of society — that the people they’re interacting
with closely aren’t infected with the coronavirus.
Players and coaches have expressed their confidence publicly, but coaches will continue to wear masks when giving instruction and Kapler anticipates wearing a mask while managing all 60 games this season.
With a week remaining until Opening Day, there’s a renewed sense of optimism coming from Giants players and coaches. Some entered camp skeptical of whether MLB’s health and safety protocols will work as intended and some surely still have reservations about how traveling, playing against opponents and interacting with people away from the field will affect the league’s ability to stage a successful season.
The threat the coronavirus poses isn’t going away anytime soon, but neither are face coverings and the sense of responsibility the vast majority of players and coaches feel to keep one another healthy. Perhaps that will be enough to help MLB navigate and complete a season unlike any other.
De La Salle’s Harrison officially signs
De La Salle left-hander Kyle Harrison was the fifth player the Giants chose in the 2020 MLB amateur draft, but Harrison will be paid like a top pick. The Giants announced Thursday they officially signed Harrison, more than a month after the two sides reportedly agreed to a $2.5 million signing bonus.
The team has now come to terms with all seven of its selections and while Harrison was taken after four other players, his bonus only trails the Giants’ first round pick Patrick Bailey, who was the 13th overall choice in the 2020 draft.
Madero reports
Right-handed pitcher Luís Madero, who tested positive for COVID-19, also reported to camp Thursday after passing his physical. Madero is not expected to be a candidate for the Opening Day roster, but the Giants like the 23-yearold right-hander’s potential and it’s possible he could emerge as a bullpen option late in the season.
Longoria dealing with oblique strain
Third baseman Evan Longoria, who could be the lone everyday player on the Giants’ roster, has missed the team’s past two intrasquad scrimmages with a moderate right oblique strain and his status for Opening Day is in jeopardy.