If Major League Baseball is able to thread the needle of a 60-game season during a pandemic, the Cubs will have ace starter Yu Darvish on the mound, at least for now.
They will also have five-time All-Star Jon Lester and three-time All-Star Anthony Rizzo at camp when spring summer training begins at the end of the week.
What a thing?
It looks bigger and bigger as news surges across the league of players choosing to exit the 2020 season out of COVID-19 concerns.
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Darvish was the first player during spring training months ago to express concern about the coronavirus, long before the first known death from the virus in the US and before MLB shut the sport down in mid-March, and he seemed like a possible candidate to unsubscribe. of a shortened season as the pandemic continues in most of the country.
Lester and Rizzo are cancer survivors and appear to qualify for the category of “high risk” players who would be allowed to choose not to participate and still receive service time and salary.
After Diamondbacks pitcher Mike Leake became the first player to be banned, a source close to Darvish said the four-time All-Star intends to show up for camp this week and pitch, which seems be the intended consensus on the Cubs list.
“Up to this point, we have had no one speak to us about the exclusion,” general manager Jed Hoyer said Monday afternoon during an extended session with reporters. “But that says that I’ve seen in the last hour or so that three league players have chosen not to participate. I’m sure there will be more. And I feel like we have to respect that.
“Everyone will make these decisions from a different angle,” he added, “but I don’t think anyone who plays in the major leagues makes that decision lightly.” They will do it with a lot of information from probably friends and family and probably also from teammates. ”
In addition to Leake, Nationals pitcher Joe Ross and Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman also chose not to participate.
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– Washington Nationals (@Nationals) June 29, 2020
None of the three is known to be in the high-risk category.
Per the rules outlined in the MLB Operational Manual and Players Union approved for 2020, players reserve the right throughout the training period and season to change their minds about whether to opt out (or re-enter).
Darvish, a native of Japan who made a brief trip back home during the winter, expressed concern to Cubs officials when spring training opened up to possible exposure from the handful of baseball media traveling from Asia, where the virus was most prevalent at the time.
“I am really concerned about that,” he said in early March.
Rizzo and Lester have said for months that they intended to play and did not consider their medical history to be sufficiently significant risks to choose not to participate.
“Right now we don’t have anyone we know who is considering it,” Hoyer said. “But I think that if we did, we would respect the decision and understand that this is being done from a very important place to want to support themselves or protect their families.”
Cubs outfielder Ian Happ, who recently took over as Cubs’ union representative, said last week that teammates and the union would support any player’s decision to opt out.
“I think it is very important to see the full picture here,” said Happ, who declined to predict which teammates they might consider opting out of, “and that this is our job, and the boys want to play again, but by At the same time, there is much more to it than that. “
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