The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Tribe set to welcome players back to ‘camp’
July 1, the Indians will welcome 40 players to Progressive Field for the start of “Summer Camp.”
The stage is set for Classic Park to host 15 Indians minor-league prospects assigned to the alternate site of the team’s training camp for the delayed, truncated 2020 Major League Baseball season.
On July 1, those players and an unspecified number of coaches and support staffers will begin reporting to the Eastlake ballpark that is home to the Lake County Captains, a full-season Single-A affiliate of the Indians playing in the Midwest League.
Formal workouts won’t begin until July 3 for what now is being called Summer Camp. Between now and them, players will work out informally after being tested for COVID-19.
There will be no fan access to workouts at Classic Park, Captains general manager Jen Yorko said. Those workouts will continue through the end of September.
Spring training for all 30 majorleague teams was suspended March 12 as part of the nationwide effort to fight the spread of disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The scheduled start of the regular season on March 26 also was pushed back indefinitely.
All teams are authorized to begin organized workouts July 1. The Indians will have 40 players at Progressive Field and 15 at Classic Park. Major League Baseball has not yet released schedules for the 60-game slate that is projected to start on July 23 or July 24.
The workouts and games will adhere strictly to guidelines established by the Center for Disease Control.
Those guidelines and fleshed out in a 106-page memo published with the approval of Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association.
“There are a lot of moving parts to this,” Yorko said June 30 as she and several Captains staffers made final adjustments to the setups in the home and visitors clubhouses at Classic Park. Both clubhouses will be used to insure proper physical distancing.
“We are working closely with the Indians’ staff to make sure everything is ready. Our No. 1 concern is for the health and safety of everyone involved.”
Although the Captains and all minorleague teams have not played a game this season, Yorko said Classic Park has stayed busy with games between area youth league and traveling teams.
“We’ve probably had 50 games here since the end of May,” she said.
Of the 15 players coming to Classic Park, 13 have played for the Captains. They are catcher Bo Naylor, outfielder
George Valera, infielders Bobby Bradley, Ernie Clement, Tyler Freeman and Nolan Jones and pitchers Ethan Hankins, Sam Hentges, Triston McKenzie, Jean-Carlos Mejia, Eli Morgan, Kyle Nelson and Nick Sandlin.
Other invitees are pitcher Daniel Espino and infielder Aaron Bracho.
Espino, a 19-year-old right-hander from Panama, was selected by the Indians with 24th overall pick in the first round of the 2019 draft. Bracho is an 18-year-old infielder from Venezuela signed by the Indians in July 2017 as an international free agent.
The Indians have leeway to add as many as five players to the roster at the Classic Park.