MLB Is About to Screw the Season up… Again

Overtime Heroics Editorial

1887 days ago

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. MLB assumed that they were carefully embarking on what they thought was a good strategy. Baseball would be played, and with constant COVID-19 testing, the players would remain safe while the virus was held in check. Don’t look now, but MLB’s about to screw the season up… again.

The league can’t help that players have contracted the virus, but it’s safe to assume they were carrying it prior to reaching camp. While they’re doing their best to weed out those who are infected, new issues have now arisen.

Testing Becomes a Test of Its Own

According to Ken Rosenthal, at least a couple of teams have had issues with the testers showing up to test the players. MLB has mandated testing as much as three times a week. Furthermore, the players are prohibited from practicing until tested.

Meanwhile, the Oakland A’s are dealing with another type of issue. They’d been tested, but rather than to have shipped the swabs out to a lab in Utah to be analyzed, the test swabs sat resting comfortably over the weekend, somewhere in San Francisco.

Angels had own issue with testing today. Per sources, testers did not show. Players did saliva tests on their own; unclear if/how tests were shipped to lab in Utah. But Monday workout was pushed back from 9 am PT to noon, seemingly to give lab more time to determine results. https://t.co/BGD0FQGmGr

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 6, 2020

Somehow, despite weeks of talks between MLB and the MLBPA, Manfred has once again managed to half-ass the way this is being handled.

If players continue to lose faith in the league’s intent to keep them safe, you’ll see more and more players opting out.

I spoke with another player who was tested even earlier and then not again until yesterday.

The testing issues are real.

They're also fixable.

MLB has a short window to remedy them before players lose faith in the process — and this is before games and travel have started. https://t.co/0P0t4Gp9FT

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 6, 2020

The Cubs’ Kris Bryant is one of those players who no longer feels safe.

Kris Bryant's full answer on testing issues we're seeing throughout baseball right now, which includes this quote, "I wanted to play this year because I felt that it would be safe and I would be comfortable. Honestly, I don't really feel that way." pic.twitter.com/1BdbHrPWWJ

— Sahadev Sharma (@sahadevsharma) July 6, 2020

Adding insult to injury, MLB isn’t even testing players on the schedule they’d promised. An agreement with union and health officials was made, and the leageue has failed to abide by it. Several members of the Blue Jays went through the first week of camp, only being tested once. That little screw up had some rather serious implications

The Toronto #BlueJays left 12 players behind in Dunedin, Fla., with one players testing positive and the others in direct contact with him. Several Blue Jays say they were only tested once before traveling back to Toronto.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) July 6, 2020

At the rate this is going, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the 2020 MLB season implode long before Opening Day (July 23rd). Stay tuned, MLB is going to screw this up. Again.

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