The Phillies closed their facility in Clearwater, Fla. after reporting eight employees, including five players, had tested positive for COVID-19 since Tuesday. The Blue Jays in Dunedin, Fla. and Giants in Scottsdale, Az., shut their complexes also after personnel showed symptoms of coronavirus.
By Friday evening, MLB had decided to close all 30 camps for a deep cleaning while instituting a rule that to return to informal workouts, hopefully by next week, personnel would have to test negative for the coronavirus.
So even as further hostility invaded negotiations with the Players Association releasing a statement saying MLB informed the union that it will not make another proposal nor play more than 60 games, the greatest danger to the season was reasserted Friday with revelations from multiple camps that personnel had tested positive for the coronavirus. It was a reminder that if an MLB season restarts it will be quite a feat to play 50, 60 or 70 regular season games without disruption or cancellation. Heck, it will be something to get 5, 6 or 7 in.
Teams reported positive tests or symptoms at a time when far fewer players and staff were using these facilities then would be if a spring training 2.0 ever launches. Imagine how much more difficult it will be to keep everyone healthy when the numbers of people in camps significantly multiplies.
As much as the owners and union hate each other — and hate understates it — the common enemy has always been the virus.
Thus, the sides continue to have a mechanism to cooperate and finish off an agreement. Part of any negotiation is allowing both sides to walk away and do at least one of the following: 1) claim victory, 2) assume the moral high ground or 3) save face.
This is no gift for the parties. People have gotten sick with a deadly disease. But it is a reminder that the virus provides a chance for both sides to claim victory, assume the moral high ground and save face. They can now agree to anything on the table and cite the camp closedowns in Arizona and Florida for why working together to play as safely as possible must return as the priority.
Will they do that?
The hate, so far, has prevented partnership despite massive external events that should be unifying the parties. The pandemic. Widespread financial ruin. Nationwide protests for social justice for people of color. To date, MLB and its players have put on blinders and followed a labor playbook with which Bowie Kuhn and Marvin Miller would be familiar.
But they are so close now and looking for an excuse to create the bridge from MLB’s offer of 60 games and the union’s request for 70, both at full prorated pay. Even if the union accepted the 60 now it could 1) claim victory that the players got full prorated pay, 2) assume the moral high ground of putting away the other 10 games to concentrate on health and safety issues to bring the great national pastime back to the fans and 3) save face by see Nos. 1 and 2.
MLB could do similarly by accepting 65-70 games, even after management claims the Tuesday meeting between Rob Manfred and Tony Clark created the framework for a deal, not a floor for the union to make a counterproposal.
Who would say no at this moment to 64 games with the roughly $100 million in salary that would cost compared to 60 games being jointly donated by the parties for COVID-19 and social justice entities? Talk about mutually saving face. Kumbaya. Cue the sweeping music.
They really then would have to work in great cooperation to deal with a virus not concerned with whether you own the Padres or play third base for the Dodgers. The unpredictability resonates. Not long ago New York was the epicenter and there were intense conversations about creating three 10-team hubs to play exclusively in Arizona, Florida and Texas. Now, those three states are soaring in coronavirus cases. The safest hub today would be New York/New Jersey/Connecticut.
But that is today. The virus does not come with an itinerary. Hopefully we are closing in on massively produced, reliable tests that quickly reveal whether even an asymptomatic person has the coronavirus, which would help MLB keep those who have the virus from going to the park and potentially infecting others. Already better practices have arisen to promote better outcomes for those who contract the disease and perhaps therapeutics are near that will improve results further. Maybe a vaccine emerges before a season concludes in the fall.
Still, MLB has accepted it would be when a player or staff member tests positive once a season restarts, not if. So the sides must finalize protocols on what occurs when that happens.
A horrible way — people getting sick — has handed MLB and the players yet another path to find each other, to reach an accord, to see a bigger picture and unify against an enemy with a 100 percent disapproval rating: the virus.
What will the sides do with what feels like a final 2020 opportunity for cooperation and peace?