Report: MLB Players Being Allowed to Leave Spring Training Facilities After Announced Delay to Season

Now that Major League Baseball has ruled that the start of the season will be delayed by at least two weeks, a report Friday indicates that the players are being allowed to go back home if they choose or they could stay at the team's spring training complex.

After Thursday’s decision by Major League Baseball to make moves in line with the rest of the North American pro sports leagues, Friday more decisions came down pertaining to players being allowed to leave spring training facilities.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that Friday teams in both the Majors and minors were informed that players are being allowed to return home until further notice due to fear from the coronavirus (COVID-19).

The report says that Major League Baseball held an afternoon meeting with the players union to come up with the decision to allow players to go home.

Players also could stay at the team’s spring training complexes, or go back to their team’s home city and wait things out.

Indians team president Chris Antonetti spoke early Friday morning to the media, mostly stating that with all the changes the team was mostly just standing on call waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“I think we were expecting and had been prepared to react quickly based upon the information we were getting from infectious disease specialists,” Antonetti said Friday at the team’s spring training complex in Goodyear.

“To say we could predict it would have been really hard to say that, but we know it’s going to be a dynamic environment and will continue to be.

“That’s why we are reluctant to start thinking about what is going to happen on Monday or Wednesday or two weeks from now. That’s getting way ahead of ourselves.”

Thursday Major League Baseball made the decision to cancel the remaining spring training games and push the start of the season back by at least two weeks to April 9.

Another report Friday from ESPN’s Jeff Passan says that likely official games won’t be played until May, and that could be pushing things.

No decisions have been made about once the season does get under way what will be done to the games that are not played starting on March 26.

The Indians were slated to start the year with a six-game homestand against the Detroit Tigers on March 26, 28 and 29.

They then had three games on the docket against the Chicago White Sox on March 30, 31 and April 1 before they went on the road for their first road trip against Detroit and Minnesota.