‘CRAZY’ TIMES ON HORIZON
Yanks may lose sanctuary from madness
TAMPA — DJ LeMahieu said last week working out helps keep him sane as everything else is so uncertain during the coronavirus pandemic and MLB shutdown. Tyler Wade thinks of the gym at George M. Steinbrenner Field as a safe space. Aaron Judge says it is the only outlet that prevents him from going stir crazy right now.
But Monday morning, their sanctuary at the ballpark was on edge. With reports over the weekend that fitness centers and gymnasiums were to be closed in the state of Florida and also the potential for a shelter in place order from Hillsborough County, where the Yankees spring training complex is located, the Yankees’ remaining players have been concerned about losing their place to work out and work through the MLB shutdown.
“I don’t know. That’s something I am going to have to think about. Maybe Arizona,” said Wade, who was concerned about going back to his native California, where everyone is under a ‘shelter in place’ order. “I think a lot of guys are going out there. Hopefully, maybe since our numbers are small, I mean there’s three of us, four of us in there not counting the rehab guys. They are doing their thing in the training room… so we’re never this close to each other. So hopefully it’s beneficial to us.”
Monday, the park surrounding GMS Field was locked up for the first time, but a half a dozen major league players were at the ballpark, including guys going through rehabilitation, like Luis Severino, who is still in a brace after Tommy John surgery.
This has been the routine, even after the Yankees were hit by the coronavirus.
The Yankees have had two confirmed cases of COVID-19 among minor-league players. The team put its minor leaguers and some player-development personnel under voluntary 14day quarantine. They have incentivized the quarantine by increasing the players’ per diem, which would normally be $25 a day, to $75 and providing three meals a day and housing. They expected the majority of those players and personnel to come out of the quarantine on Wednesday and to reopen their minor-league facility as well. The second case, reported on Mar. 15 extends the quarantine for some.
There are reminders everywhere for the players still here. A drive-thru testing center is being set up across the road at Raymond James Stadium and Sunday, the Florida Department of Health announced 244 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus with eight confirmed in Hillsborough County.
The Yankees have been adamant that their confirmed infected players had no contact or link to the major-league complex, which is less than a mile from the minor-league complex. Big league players have expressed concern for the players who were infected and their families, but have also seemed reassured by the team and local health officials that their health was not compromised.
MLB discouraged players from coming into their spring-training complexes and made organized workouts impossible, while the union told players to go where they felt the safest. For some, the complex is where they feel the most comfortable.
“Very concerning, just for their health and their families’ health and everyone that was over there,” Wade said about the infected players. “I think it is one of those things you’ve just gotta wash your hands and make sure you’ve taken all the precautions. That’s another thing I was going to say. By coming in here I trust everyone in that facility that everything is gonna be clean. Everyone’s wearing gloves. I’ve seen people once they touch something take off those gloves and throw them away. So coming in here I almost feel like this is the safest place to be.”
Judge has not only been rehabbing from a stress fracture in his first right rib and a partially collapsed lung, which he said was completely healed on Friday. He has also been doing light activity on the field with a few of the guys, like catching balls to help practice defensive plays. With a residence in Tampa, Judge said this is really his only outlet during the shutdown.
“The great thing is that they have this open so we can kind of come here and still do some baseball activity and stay ready and it’s gonna feel like we’re still in baseball mode, but it’s kind of the one thing,” Judge said. “It’s helped me out a little bit. I got some stuff around the house to put up some stuff on the wall, cleaning, but I think after I get all my stuff done in my apartment, then we kind of, you know, go crazy a little bit.”