Cubs, White Sox will allow 20% capacity

After a season of mostly empty ballparks in Chicago, the famed marquee at Wrigley Field said it all. “Welcome home, Cubs fans,” it read. Thousands of masked fans of the Cubs and White Sox will get to see their teams play in person beginning on opening day, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Monday. Each team will be limited to 20% capacity, but it was enough to send some fans off to Wrigley to celebrate.

The capacity limitations mean the White Sox can admit as many as 8,122 fans to Guaranteed Rate Field, and the Cubs will be allowed to admit as many as 8,274 fans per game.

Though the announcement clears the way for fans in the stands for the first time since the 2019 season, the mask requirement is just one of several changes that will make the experience of going to the ballpark look and feel a bit different. Cash will not be accepted at concession stands or in souvenir shops.

Mum is still the word: Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo declined to specify Monday why Jeremy Jeffress was released from a minor league contract by the team, saying only that he considered it an “employment issue” and acknowledging it was not related to the reliever’s baseball performance.

“We’re just going to stand by the statement I made yesterday. It’s a ‘personnel matter’,” Rizzo said in a video conference with reporters a day after the team cut ties with Jeffress, a 2018 NL all-star for the Milwaukee Brewers who was with the Cubs last season. “We’re not going to discuss it any further, per our policy on personnel matters, and we’re just going to keep it at that.”

Asked to define the term he used in relation to the move, Rizzo responded, “A ‘personnel reason’ is an employment issue.”

Manager Dave Martinez wouldn’t comment on Jeffress at all.