Not so fast! MLB union chief says players haven't gotten a formal proposal about restarting MLB
These days, not a week passes without a new plan about restarting baseball leaking and taking over the news cycle. The past month has given us everything from quarantined leagues in Arizona and Florida to a shorter season that would see MLB turn into three 10-team divisions.
Just Monday, former MLB player Trevor Plouffe said on Twitter that players would be reporting to spring training in June with the league starting July 1. While that sounds great, it also doesn’t seem to be true. Not yet at least.
The truth remains — as it has since the start of the coronavirus shutdown — that nobody knows for sure when baseball is going to restart. And if you don’t believe that, then listen to Tony Clark, head of the MLB players union.
On Tuesday, Clark said in an interview with ESPN’s Marly Rivera that the players union hasn’t received a formal plan from MLB for approval. That should signal two things: (1) They’re not playing baseball without players knowing and (2) None of these plans are far enough along (or close enough to happening) if the players union hasn’t gotten a formal proposal.
Here’s what Clark told Rivera:
“Despite all that has been floated and all the rhetoric that is out there, we have not received anything formal that details an actual plan ... Unless or until we see and receive an actual proposal with a plan or plans — because my guess is there’s going to need to be flexibility in whatever is going to be considered — it’s all assumptions. It lends itself to the uncertainty because there’s a lot of ideations, but not any substance behind them just yet.”
Look, there’s nothing wrong with wanting baseball to return and getting excited every time a new idea for restarting baseball gets tweeted about. But plans circulating on social media don’t get us any closer to baseball returning. There are plenty of public health issues to work out that MLB simply can’t forecast right now.
Set your alarm and enjoy the KBO in the middle of the night if you need your baseball fix. For now, that’s the best we’ve got.
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