D-backs’ Hall: MLB in ideas-not-planning stage for coronavirus return

Arizona Diamondbacks president and CEO Derrick Hall wants to be optimistic without getting ahead of himself. As the Korean Baseball Organization began play this week in front of no fans to limit coronavirus exposure, Major League Baseball is among the sports leagues in the United States drafting plans to operate through a rescheduled regular season.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported that MLB will relay a return-to-play proposal to the players association within a week that outlines a schedule to begin the 2020 season.

“It’s fun to see dates out there,” Hall told Doug & Wolf of Arizona Sports. “We’ve been more generic (in planning). We’re still … believe it or not, in the ideas-not-planning stage. I don’t think we can get that specific yet until we know that we have enough testing and we’re not impacting the public, getting in the way in any possible manner. It’s difficult to say.”

Passan reports that MLB’s proposal for a return calls for a resumption of spring training in mid-June with a regular season starting in mid-July. Of course, that timeline that could be pushed back in accordance with state and local guidelines, not to mention advice from coronavirus experts.

After MLB had discussions about reorganizing baseball’s divisions or splitting teams into regions to create bubbles in places like Arizona, Florida and Texas, Passan adds that momentum is heading toward teams using their home ballparks.

The National Football League, meanwhile, has begun circulating guidelines for teams to begin reopening practice facilities.

Some NBA teams have announced they will reopen practice facilities Friday with limitations on the number of people in them at one time. In soccer, the Phoenix Rising FC’s USL Championship league will allow teams to hold practices in small groups as early as Monday.

Across the globe, other leagues are planning to open following the KBO. The Bundesliga soccer season in Germany will resume on May 16 in front of no fans, the league said Thursday.

“I think it’s encouraging and there’s light at the end of that tunnel that other countries are trying it,” Hall said.

The D-backs president cautioned that things could stand in the way.

To that point, the National Rugby League in Australia set a May 28 return date, but a single player’s refusal to get a flu shot in accordance with the plan in place has gone to the upper levels of the country’s legal system.

“Everybody has to be on board” from the government, team and player levels before MLB green-lights return dates, Hall said.

“I think when that time does come … we’re still going to have to be extremely careful and make sure there’s ongoing testing.”

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