Bubble was never going to happen for baseball for the same reason as football - the season is too long. The bubble works in the NBA because it's only 22 teams, and 6 of those will be gone in about 10 days. And then another 8 less than 2 weeks after that. Players are more willing to accept it when they are really only committing to a few weeks for a regular season instead of 2+ months (baseball) or 4+ months (football). And NBA teams have many fewer players and much smaller arenas so its logistically much simpler.
The league made no effort at all to have an actual plan. They were too busy arguing about money. Maybe they could have tried mini bubbles. 4 teams report to one town and are quarantined for a day or 2 before playing 3 round robin series or something like that. At least then you could keep possible outbreaks localized to a few teams. Baseball is too big, and too everyday to do what the NBA did, but they should have tried something, anything to mitigate spread. Instead everything is completely normal just without fans in the stadium.
I get there's a **** ton of money involved... but "needing to be better" is just words. They need real guidance, leadership and solid/fundamental plans for this. This isn't something you do or change on the fly... but that's exactly what they're trying to do. Their initial plan of just having backup players replace the infected ones means nothing when you have a tight-quartered clubhouse/hotel/plane with players who were previously infected.
Spoiler Major League Baseball has evidence that the Marlins’ COVID-19 outbreak resulted from a breach of the sport’s health and safety protocols. To this point, however, MLB investigators do not believe that nightlife was the root of the problem that led to 20 infections on the team, 18 of them among players. “The failure to use masks, the players gathering in the hotel without masks, whether it’s in the hallway or people’s rooms — if you really want to know what could have been done better by the club, that’s really where it lies,” one source with knowledge of the investigation said. The league is aware of reports and rumors that players went to a bar or another establishment outside their hotel in Atlanta. It is possible such events occurred; the league has yet to finalize its findings, and investigators are always somewhat dependent on interviewees’ honesty. League officials, though, currently are operating under another theory. MLB suspects a super spreader — someone who transmits the virus to more than the two or three people a carrier normally would infect — was involved in the Marlins’ rapid spread. The Marlins’ seating arrangement on their plane from Atlanta to Philadelphia, where the team has been quarantined since July 26, contributed to the league’s initial conclusion. “(The league) thinks the initial exposure took not all 20, but took a lot of them,” the source said. “Then we had some spread from there based on the failure to follow the protocols.” The process the Marlins are going through is not a standard investigation, as discipline does not appear to be an option for either clubs or players. The league has assured the players association it will not seek discipline related to COVID-19. But MLB’s department of investigations, the same group that looks into sign-stealing and other transgressions in the sport, is involved and has been speaking with Marlins players — a notably higher level of contact tracing than other teams might experience. MLB and the union have been in daily contact, often with multiple calls per day. Speaking to ESPN’s Karl Ravech on Saturday, commissioner Rob Manfred publicly reinforced that he does not plan to cancel the season imminently based on the number of positive infections MLB has seen thus far. “We are playing,” Manfred said. “The players need to be better, but I am not a quitter in general and there is no reason to quit now. We have had to be fluid, but it is manageable.” Though Manfred, in a conversation on Friday with MLBPA executive director Tony Clark, did communicate the need to improve player adherence to protocols; officials with knowledge of the conversation said the intent was never to make a new or firm threat about the cancellation of the season — nor was it received as one. In a news release on Saturday that included scheduling updates for teams that have been sidelined because of COVID-19, MLB appeared to indicate overall a sense of progress, even with some new uncertainty for the Cardinals. Three Cardinals players have tested positive, including two who learned of their positive tests on Thursday. Three other staffers (which can include personnel other than coaches) have tested positive, as well. Some of those positives are based on rapid tests, and MLB was awaiting further confirmation on Saturday night with results from its primary lab in Utah. The Phillies, who have been quarantined because they were the Marlins’ last opponents on July 26, have had three positive tests, all among staffers. But the league said on Saturday, “it appears that two of those individuals’ tests were false positives, and it is unclear if the third individual contracted COVID-19 from Marlins players and staff based on the timing of the positive test.” The false positives might be owed to expedited testing. The Phillies used a local lab for a quick turnaround, and the incidence of false positives on rapid tests is said to be higher. At the league’s primary facility in Utah, tests are run twice, and results often take longer to produce. “If you want to be conservative and are more concerned with knowing where you are, you have to live with some false positives,” the source said. “Well, I know one thing. I would rather have a false positive than a false negative, because if we have a false negative, we’ve seen what happens once it gets in a clubhouse,” Phillies manager Joe Girardi said on Saturday afternoon. “So I like that we’re cautious. I think that’s the way that we have to be because you jeopardize too many individuals, and not just the individuals inside the clubhouse, but extended family members of individuals.” The Marlins, who have been quarantined in Philadelphia for almost a full week, are scheduled to return to play on Tuesday in Baltimore for a four-game set against the Orioles, with a planned doubleheader. A hurricane on the East Coast could interrupt play on Tuesday, however, and delay the resumption of the Marlins’ schedule until Wednesday. The Yankees and Phillies, who had four games scheduled against each other this past week, now have four games scheduled this upcoming week: the first two games at Yankee Stadium on Monday and Tuesday, and the next two at Citizens Bank Park on Wednesday and Thursday. It’s unclear when the Cardinals will resume play.
The Round Rock Hairy Men (Texas Collegiate League team) have cancelled their season after players tested positive.
It strikes me that baseball is a lot about custom and tradition. As uncustomary and nontraditional as this season is shaping up to be, there are probably a lot of guys really uncomfortable about how things are playing out. All the rules about what you can and should do and not and so forth. Not saying this applies here, but it reminds me that some guys may reach a breaking point and just, disappear (pull out of the whole ordeal without warning).
In 2020 if you are completely incapable of getting in touch with somebody it's cause for alarm beyond baseball.
Hopefully it's just him getting tired of how the season is going so far and decided to say F it, I'm opting out. Hopefully nothing bad happened. Just wierd that if he decided to opt, you would think you would let someone from the organization know. And if someone is trying to contact you, reply or answer and say yeah I'm done for the season.
