Commissioner confident COVID won’t derail season

NEW YORK— Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred says he’s confident his sport can get through the regular season and post-season without being stopped by the coronavirus, though not every team might play all 60 games and winning percentage could be used to determine playoff teams.

During an interview Saturday with The Associated Press, Manfred said Major League Baseball knows which player introduced COVID-19 into the clubhouse of the Marlins. Miami and Philadelphia both postponed games for an entire week.

“I think that if everybody does what they are supposed to do, we can continue to play, have a credible season and get through the post-season,” Manfred said.

Just one and a half weeks into a pandemic-delayed regular season shortened from 162 games per team to 60, the coronavirus has forced 17 postponements in 10 days and prompted at least two more players to opt out Saturday: Milwaukee allstar outfielder Lorenzo Cain and Miami second baseman Isan Díaz.

At least 18 Marlins players have been infected along with two St. Louis Cardinals.

Manfred had what he said was a constructive conversation Friday with union head Tony Clark, and expects stepped-up efforts by players and teams to adhere to special virus protocols put in place by MLB and the players’ association.

“It is what the public health experts have been saying from the beginning about this, that there is no one big magic fix,” Manfred said.

“The protocols are a series of little things that people need to do. We’ve had some problems. In order to be better, it’s another series of little things. I think it’s peer pressure. I think it’s players taking personal responsibility. I think it’s the union helping us like Tony Clark helped us yesterday. And I think it’s us managing more aggressively,” he said.

Still, he does expect more issues. “I don’t think it’s realistic to think that we’re not going to have any more positive tests,” Manfred said. “We’re going to be fluid. We think it’s manageable and we’re going to continue to try to manage it.”

Miami, which last played July 26 at Philadelphia, was set to resume its schedule Tuesday at Baltimore. The Phillies are due back Monday at Yankee Stadium. “Once you have somebody who starts producing the virus, what seemed like harmless protocol code violations become serious issues,” Manfred said.

Toronto missed its weekend series against the Phillies. Blue Jays pitcher Matt Shoemaker was against a bubble-environment such as the NBA and MLS are using and understood Manfred’s urging of stricter adherence.

“I don’t take Rob’s comments as a personal attack at all because I know we are doing better and some teams might not be, so hopefully they do better,” Shoemaker said.

“If guys are going out to clubs or bars that is irresponsible to say the least, if that’s what happened. We have guys not doing that which is great from a team standpoint. We want to play baseball.” MLB-mandated monitors have been accompanying teams on the road since Wednesday in an effort to cause stricter adherence to the protocols.