The long journey to the start of the regular season begins this week with training camps opening in time in Florida and Arizona – albeit with many of the same COVID-19 protocols in place during the 2020 season.
For now, Opening Day on April 1 is scheduled – defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers starts at the Colorado Rockies – and the 108-page operations manual for 2021 includes shorter spring training games, mandatory use of tracking devices of contact, fines for not using masks properly and banning meals indoors and going to the cinema.
Fans will be allowed to attend the spring training games in limited numbers; Florida teams will limit travel between states for games; and players will face a five-day quarantine when they report to the camp. Otherwise, they are all normal systems – as normal as they can be, anyway.
As players head for spring training, let’s take a tour of the championships to see the biggest spring training story to watch for each team and a few key players to keep an eye on.