Indians Hitting Coach Ty Van Burkleo Opts Out of Remainder of 2020 Season

Indians hitting coach Ty Van Burkleo will not be with the team for the rest of the season after announcing Friday that he has opted out of the rest of the 2020 MLB season due to having a "high risk condition" that could cause him to contract the covid-19 virus. The team will replace Van Burkleo with two current coaches in the Indians system.

While the Indians have yet to lose any players to opting out due to the threat of the covid-19 virus, Friday they lost their second coach for the remainder of the 2020 season.

The team announced that hitting coach Ty Van Burkleo has opted out for the remainder of the season due to the ongoing threat of the coronavirus pandemic.

The team will replace Van Burkleo with Alex Eckelman, the current director of hitting development, and assistant hitting coach Victor Rodriguez as well as hitting analyst Justin Toole.

Van Burkleo will not be an afterthought, as team president Chris Antonetti said Friday that he will continue to contribute remotely from his residence in California.  

The Tribe hitting coach has been with the team since Terry Francona took over as manager back in 2012.

“Ty has our full support in this decision,” Antonetti said Friday. 

Associated Press reporter Tom Withers tweeted out that Van Burkleo has a "personal high-risk condition and family reasons that made it necessary for him to step aside this season."

The Indians also lost bench coach Brad Mills due to his opting out, which took place prior to the start of the season.

Mills' decision to opt out came just months after the death of his grandson, who drowned in a pool in Texas. 

The Indians hitting has been a sore subject with many to start the 2020 season, as the club has simply not hit the ball as expected.

They finally came out of their offensive funk on Thursday night at Progressive Field, scoring 13 runs (10 in the seventh inning) in a 13-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds to move to 8-6 on the season.

Right now in 14 games the team has scored 47 runs (3.3 per game) and ranks 29th in Major League Baseball with a .192 team batting average.