Health and safety will be constant theme as Royals near ‘Spring Training 2.0’ at The K
Testing to ensure no players have the COVID-19 coronavirus is the Kansas City Royals’ first step toward resuming workouts this week at Kauffman Stadium.
Players are expected to report for “Spring Training 2.0” by Wednesday, though the Royals won’t hold an organized team workout until Friday. Some players who’ve arrived early — and have already undergone testing and been cleared — could start working out before Friday.
The battle against the coronavirus will continue throughout this several-week training period as well as the 60-game Major League Baseball season that’s slated to start July 23-24.
While plans hatched by the NBA, NHL, MLS and WNBA include isolating players and staff inside a “bubble” or “campus” in hopes of creating a controlled environment — all teams staying at a common location — MLB is going a different route.
Baseball will not isolate its teams. Instead, they will continue to venture out of state for road games, though schedules for each team have been designed to limit the amount of travel they’ll face.
Players, coaches and support staff will be asked to exercise personal responsibility in an effort to keep the spread of the virus from having a drastic impact on one another’s health, and potentially the health of their family members as well as the MLB season.
“The players accept that responsibility, and they have been a part of this process to mutually come together to come up with the protocols that are necessary to keep everybody safe and healthy,” Royals general manager Dayton Moore said during a recent video call. “The players are extremely committed as is each team in Major League Baseball to make sure that everybody’s health is at the foremost front of everything that we’re doing.”
MLB has announced numerous procedures aimed at healthy and safety, including each team submitting a written “COVID-19 Action Plan” to MLB, the prohibition of spitting at all times in club facilities, allowing pitchers to carry a small, wet rag in their back pocket for moisture in place of licking their fingers, requiring clubs to provide expanded dugout and bullpen space, practicing social distancing, and eliminating the pre-game exchange of lineup cards.
Along with a usual injured list, a COVID-19 injured list will allow each team to add a replacement to its roster in the event a player becomes sick. Players may be placed on the COVID-19 Related IL based on a positive test, confirmed exposure to the coronavirus or if a player exhibits symptoms requiring self-isolation for further assessment.
Each club will have players who are part of the team’s player pool but aren’t on its active roster.
Of that group, up to three players can travel with the club on the road as members of a “taxi squad.” If the club uses all three taxi squad spots, at least one of those three players must be a catcher.
MLB and the MLB Players Association have attempted to provide options and an array of contingencies for injuries and infection.
Still, Royals head trainer Nick Kenney, manager Mike Matheny and Moore continue to push individual responsibility heading into this week’s training and an unprecedented season.
“We’ve always had this social responsibility, as far as health goes, to try and do the right thing to eliminate the risk, regardless of what you think individually,” Matheny said of his message to players. “Just caring about people, having some empathy to put yourself in other people’s shoes and realize that this thing has rocked a whole lot of folks’ world. So let’s just be wise about that. And now, the reality is we’re really dependent on each other.
“We’re dependent on each other, of how we go about any free time that we have. I just wanted to continue to pass on the urgency, and that word urgency is used a lot with us right now. The urgency to make sure that you’re just being smart and protect yourself, protect your families. But then don’t lose sight of the fact of what you’re going to be bringing in here. So let’s, let’s be smart.”
This story was originally published July 1, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Health and safety will be constant theme as Royals near ‘Spring Training 2.0’ at The K."
