Amidst Coronavirus Pandemic, Health and Safety Are at the Forefront for the Rangers
The spread of the coronavirus (COVID19) has forced the world of sports to hit the pause button – and not just on their game schedules. The health and safety of everyone are at forefront of those in the sports world, which is only a mere fraction of the bigger picture we are all facing in our country and throughout the world.
Beyond canceling or suspending games, necessary precautions have been taken by many teams and players to keep everyone safe. The Texas Rangers are no different.
"There's additional precautions we'll take from a standpoint of sanitation around the clubhouse. We have been for several weeks," Rangers GM Jon Daniels told the media via conference call on Friday night. "Last week, we had a medical grade cleaning done at Rangers village and the spring training complex."
When it comes to the most crucial aspect of this situation, obviously the topic of players testing positive for COVID-19 is a major issue. Thankfully, the Rangers have no players that have tested positive. On the flip side, no Rangers player has been tested for the virus yet either.
"Nobody has been tested for it.," Daniels said. "I don't believe that anybody in our camp have met the criteria that is currently in place for testing."
Daniels also went on to say there weren't any Major or Minor league players in camp that have any symptoms.
Major League Baseball has suspended all spring training camps and have given Major League players the option to stay in their team's spring facilities, go back to their team's metroplex, or simply go home, including those who reside in Latin America. The Rangers have reinforced that, putting a heavy emphasis on the health and safety of their players and staff.
"We tried to be very clear and very careful with how we presented the options," Daniels said. "We want everyone to do what's right for them with the clear priority being the health of our people – the players, staff, their families, and certainly public health as well. We could not have been more clear about that."
"We don't want anyone to feel any pressure to make a decision if they feel like they will improve their chances of making the club or be in a better standing with us one way or another. We emphasized that as a group and also privately to some folks. We really want the decisions that are made to be guided by what's right for the individual."
The Rangers were originally set to break camp on March 21st.
One of the leading stories throughout Rangers camp had been the internal competition at multiple positions, primarily first base and the bullpen. As crucial as those decisions will be for the upcoming season, they are taking a back seat to the health and safety of the players.
"We haven't even talked about that," Daniels said. "Our eyes have been focused on the bigger picture, on public health and taking care of our people. We'll sit down and look at those things when we have some time, but overall all of that will be put on hold. We'll circle back to that when we have a better idea of the time frame we'll be making those decisions in."
In regards to that time frame, Major League Baseball has delayed the start of the season by two weeks, which would put Opening Day at four weeks out from this past Thursday at the absolute earliest. Teams and players will need to have time to ramp back up before the beginning of the season. That, along with how the public health situation develops, could easily push back the beginning of the season even more.
"I think MLB is pretty aware that you can't just give us a week," Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. "I would say three-to-four weeks, we would need a heads up. Hopefully sooner than later, they'll give us a start date which we can work backwards from there. Julio [Rangel], our pitching coaches, and our pitchers are very aware of this. They're trying to do the best they can. As soon as we can get more information, we can start making a schedule according to that. Until then, we just have to make sure our pitchers continue to throw and continue to be built up."
Speculation throughout the baseball world has already grown to believe that the season won't begin until after the calendar turns over to May. Just taking into account the amount of time baseball teams need to ramp things back up, it's feasible to see the baseball season starting past a meager two-week delay.
For now, the focus from the Rangers is on the health and safety on their staff, players, and their families...as it should be. Some things are bigger than baseball.
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