As MLB's COVID-19 Crisis Expands, Athletics Are Watching, Waiting and Crossing Fingers
Less than a week into play, the 2020 Major League Baseball season is on shaky ground with more than a dozen of the Miami Marlins having tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus.
That’s forced a cancellation of the Marlins’ home opener against the Baltimore Orioles scheduled for Monday night. More than that, because the Marlins were in Philadelphia over the weekend, the Yankees-Phillies game in Philly has been postponed and the entire Phillies visiting clubhouse staff are being quarantined. And the visiting clubhouse is being given an extreme fumigation.
None of that directly impacts the Oakland A’s, who have no current COVID case and who are scheduled to close out a four-game set against the Angels Monday afternoon.
Indirectly, however, the impact is huge. The A’s haven’t left the Bay area for four weeks now. But after two games against the Rockies Tuesday and Wednesday, they will go on the road for the first time. Pitcher Daniel Mengden, asked Monday if he or his teammates had any trepidation about heading out of the Bay Area, said he didn’t.
“Personally, I don’t. I’m not too sure how everyone else might feel about that,” Mengden, Tuesday’s starter against Colorado, said. “You know we all agreed to come back and play. So, we’re taking the safety precautions that MLB provided, and we’re trying to do the best we can to follow it.
“We know what we signed up for. We don’t have the powers to say whatever happens. You know there’s a lot going on with the Marlins and everything, so that will be handled accordingly. I hope every tea, stays safe and I hope the everybody on the Marlins, I wish them well and hope for everyone’s speedy recovery.”
A’s outfielder Robbie Grossman said that for this season and this situation, much of what has happened or will happen is a known risk.
“With what with we've gone through the last four months, we have to take everything day-by-day” Grossman said. “We know the risk out there. We know what's going on in other clubhouses. All we can control is us being safe in our clubhouse, and taking care of what we need to take care of.
“And like I said, just go day by day and keep our fingers crossed.”
While baseball is his job and his passion, Grossman said that coronavirus issues have been front and center in his life and in that of his team for months now.
“I’ve had it on my mind,” he said. “Every move I’ve made over the last four months … like I said, all we control is what you’re doing, what we’re doing in this clubhouse, staying safe and keeping our fingers crossed.”
Asked how precautions away from the ballpark are going, Mengden said he actually hadn’t found staying in that onerous.
“Not so much,” he said. “I mean it’s only 60 days where we have to either sit in the place you live, your apartment, your little hotel, go back and hang out and talk to your family. You quarantine yourself, watch movies, hang out, play video games and do whatever. It’s not that difficult if you know its only 60 or 70 days of doing it.
“We can suck it up and deal with it. I personally don’t think it’s that big of a deal to just go from the field back to your home base.”
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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