Major League Baseball players are due to start reporting to Arizona and Florida for spring training next week. The league established the COVID-19 health and safety protocols this week, and the spring training games will begin before the end of the month.
While the MLB seems outwardly happy to treat spring training as … well, spring training, there will be some notable differences between this show season and those of the past. Below, we present three of these forms.
1. Less players and more space
Teams can invite up to 75 players to the camp, but that does not mean that the facilities will be as crowded as usual. Baseball America’s JJ Cooper reported in January that the MLB will delay the start of the season for most minor league affiliates. Players at Double-A and Class A levels will not report to camp until their major league and Triple-A teammates leave.
The lack of overlap should theoretically make it easier for players to distance themselves socially and follow other safety measures related to the coronavirus. It also reduces the chances of an outbreak spreading throughout the organization.
The MLB will also impose a delay between the report and the admission test, with a five-day quarantine period which allows late developmental infections to be detected before exercise begins.
2. Hubs and schedules changed
As with last year’s regular season, the MLB is restructuring its spring training schedule to prioritize geography. The league is in the process of creating two centers for the Grapefruit League in Florida, one on the east coast of the state and one in the west, which will limit the amount of inter-state travel that teams must conduct, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
The MLB does not seem likely to feel the need to do something similar with the League of Cacti schedule. Spring training facilities in Arizona are more crowded than those in Florida, allowing for more convenient travel.
As Rosenthal notes, Florida teams located on the east coast will play four games less. These teams will make up for lost repetitions with intra-team games.
3. There will be some fans
Fans were not allowed to enter the last regular season, but they will be able to enter again this spring, albeit in a limited number. The Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox, for example, will limit its crowds to 2,400 people each. Other teams intend to impose similar limitations as a means of generating some gate revenue.
Apparently, tickets will be sold under provisions similar to last year’s postseason and packages offered by other sports. Fans will have to buy tickets in “capsules”, alongside other family members or friends, and will have to remain socially distant and masked, unless they are eating or drinking.
In other words, it will not be normal spring training, but it is closer in that direction than last July’s so-called “summer camp”.