A's Hold Optional Workout With Spring Training Halted

Fans and media are excluded as the Oakland Athletics adjust to the new reality of baseball in the age of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Today is the first day of the new reality of baseball – no baseball.

Or at least very little baseball.

The Oakland A’s held an optional workout Friday morning with no fans being kept away from Mesa’s HoHoKam Stadium and no media given access to the facility.

For today and at least through the weekend, it seems there will be no updates on what’s happening in the clubhouse and on the field, not just for the A’s but for all 30 Major League Baseball clubs.

That’s because MLB owners and the players’ association have moved to suspend baseball in the wake of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Spring training games have been scratched, replaced by optional workouts. The start of the season has been pushed back two weeks for now; it’s possible it could be delayed further if conditions call for it.

It’s a fluid situation, but here’s what players are facing:

Players don’t get paid for spring training. Their salaries kick in on Opening Day and last until the season’s end. They do get per diem (meal money, distributed weekly), but their spring housing is on their own dime.

For players on the 40-man roster, most of them probably can absorb the extra outlay, but for those on invitations to camp might find it more difficult. So, it will be interesting to see how many players (if any) opt to leave their teams during this unexpected hiatus.

Thursday manager Bob Melvin was asked if it was time for players to just head home for a bit.

“You know what? I have my own thoughts on that,” Melvin said told the assembled A’s media. “But let’s wait and see what MLB has to see. Then I would have more on that.”

With the media excluded from the complex for the immediate future, however, we’ll have to wait to learn Melvin’s feelings on heading home.