The Boston Red Sox Wednesday, April 22, 2020

* The Boston Globe

Baseball is (almost) back in . Here’s an inside look at what it’s like

Julian McWilliams

When Josh Herzenberg landed in South Korea on Feb. 15, he thought he had walked into an apocalypse.

Herzenberg, the quality-control coach and pitching coordinator for the Lotte Giants of the Korean Baseball Organization, had been with the team in Australia since Jan. 27 for spring training. There had been warnings of the COVID-19 pandemic making its way to Korea, but Herzenberg didn’t think things would be that desolate when he arrived.

“When I got off the plane here on the 15th, everything was shut down,” Herzenberg said during a phone interview. “The stores were open and that was about it.”

After approximately a two-week quarantine, Herzenberg said, everything slowly started to open up. He then got back to work.

“It’s not normal [in South Korea], but it’s definitely better than what’s going on over there [in the United States],” said Herzenberg, a New York native. “There’s no quarantining, but big public places are still closed.”

South Korea announced its first confirmed coronavirus case Jan. 20. The first case in the United States was reported just two days later.

The KBO, Korea’s top professional baseball league, announced Tuesday it was planning to begin its season May 5.

“We’re kind of treating it now like it’s extended spring training,” said Herzenberg. “Which in some ways is good. We can get some more hands-on time with our minor league guys, put them through individualized development programs.

"But on the other hand, we’re here to compete. Our spring training started like Feb. 1, so we’re ready to go. But, yeah, it’s standard operation. Get to the park, get your treatment, get your lift in, play baseball. That aspect of it is pretty regular.”

Herzenberg has an extensive baseball background. He played at both SUNY Oneonta and Georgetown before becoming an area scout for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2014.

He went on to be an area scout, advance scout, and minor league pitching coach in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization for parts of three years, working closely with Gabe Kapler, who at the time was head of the team’s player development program. After Kapler was hired as the manager of the Philadelphia Phillies in 2018, Herzenberg stepped away from the game for two years, returned home to New York City and worked in finance.

The decision to take the job in Korea was a leap of faith, but it also was a reflection of just how much Herzenberg wanted to get back in the game. He had a couple of offers from major league clubs, but he felt this opportunity made the most sense. Looking back, that bold decision turned out to be the best one.

“In a lot of ways, we’re fortunate to be over here,” Herzenberg said. “There’s this whole dynamic of, like, we are actually playing baseball every day. It’s definitely a little bit odd to know back home people are staying home and other people are getting sick.”

Herzenberg described South Korea’s testing as thorough. When people enter a building, their temperature is taken. Same-day testing is available, with a four-hour turnaround. If someone tests positive, they are immediately sent to a quarantine unit and subject to a thorough contact tracing protocol.

At Sajik Baseball Stadium, where the Giants play, Herzenberg said the stadium is equipped with a camera that detects whether your lungs are inflamed. Every part of the stadium is sanitized. The Giants also demand that players wipe down equipment after using it.

The team suggested that players not shake hands, but Herzenberg noted handshakes aren’t excessive in Korean culture because many people bow to greet one another.

The Lotte Giants have yet to have any confirmed cases of coronavirus. One player did have a fever. He was tested and the facility was shut down for a day before the player’s results came back negative.

It’s not baseball as usual in South Korea, but it’s baseball nonetheless.

“We’ve been OK here,” Herzenberg said.

Minor League Baseball denies agreeing to drop major-league affiliation for 42 teams

Michael Silverman

A report in Baseball America suggested on Tuesday morning that the once vast impasse between Minor League Baseball and Major League Baseball over a new operating agreement was drawing to a sudden and unexpected resolution, with MiLB deciding it was OK with allowing 42 of its teams to lose major league affiliation.

By Tuesday afternoon, MiLB came out with a flat denial of that premise.

“Recent articles on the negotiations between MiLB and Major League Baseball (MLB) are largely inaccurate,” read the statement. “There have been no agreements on contraction or any other issues. MiLB looks forward to continuing the good faith negotiations with MLB tomorrow as we work toward an agreement that best ensures the future of professional baseball throughout the United States and Canada.”

Not long after MiLB responded, Baseball’s America’s executive editor and author of the story, J.J. Cooper, tweeted MiLB’s statement and added, “Baseball America stands by our reporting, which has also been confirmed in a report by the Associated Press.”

Early Tuesday evening, Major League Baseball got out its statement: “Major League Baseball looks forward to meeting with Minor League Baseball tomorrow and continuing our discussion about how we can jointly modernize player development and continue to have baseball in every community where it is currently being played — MLB’s goals since the beginning of our talks.

"We remain committed to good faith negotiations at the bargaining table aimed at making progress toward these goals. We will have more to say on these issues as our discussions with MiLB warrant.”

The sides are holding a conference call on Wednesday to resume their often contentious negotiations over a new Professional Baseball Agreement that would replace the current one, which expires in September.

Baseball America said that MiLB was expected to inform MLB on the phone call that it was accepting contraction.

The confusion and contradiction is par for the course for the talks, which began a year ago but turned bitter last October, when word leaked of the 42-team contraction plan.

The Lowell Spinners (short-season A) were on the initial list of 42 teams to be contracted, but a baseball source indicated in December that the team was no longer on the list. In fact, MLB has maintained for months that the original list of 42 teams is inaccurate, but it has declined to update it.

A spokesperson from MLB was not immediately available for comment.

A concession on the contraction issue would represent a major flip-flop in philosophy for MiLB, which has been stridently and outwardly opposed to losing 25 percent of its membership.

The organization, based in St. Petersburg, Fla., has led efforts among owners and politicians to fight the plan. With US Representative Lori Trahan of Lowell spearheading the effort, members of Congress created the “Save Minor League Baseball” Task Force, which included more than 100 bipartisan members of the House of Representatives.

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in particular was outspoken against MLB’s plan, and Massachusetts senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey also voiced opposition.

Minor League Baseball was winning the PR war up until talks and the storyline went quiet in February, when the pandemic began to spread across North America.

The Baseball America report said that MiLB was willing to cede power to MLB to choose where its affiliates play.

Part of the problem MiLB had initially had with MLB’s plan was for MLB to establish MLB-supported, independent “Dream League” or wood-bat leagues to play in contracted cities and stadiums. There’s no more mention of the Dream League, but according to Baseball America MiLB would want to work with MLB on maintaining teams in the affected cities.

Numerous furloughs have been announced among minor-league teams in the wake of the sports freeze, and MLB told its clubs they could furlough staff beginning next month.

* The Boston Herald

As baseball restarts in South Korea, can MLB learn from the KBO?

Jason Mastrodonato

Baseball is back, just not in the United States.

At 1 a.m. EDT on Tuesday morning (2 p.m. in South Korea), the Korean Baseball Organization, one of the top-three professional baseball leagues in the world, made its triumphant return.

While MLB and Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball have yet to make solid plans to resume play, the baseball world is getting a good look at a potential return to play in South Korea.

Though the first coronavirus cases in both South Korea and the United States were confirmed on the same day, there were just eight new cases of the coronavirus in South Korea on Sunday. In contrast, the CDC reported at least 25,000 new cases in the U.S. on Sunday.

MLB is far away from a plan to return. Yet there will be a lot of eyes on South Korea, where former big leaguers like former Red Sox prospect Casey Kelly will suit up for a preseason slate that began Tuesday, with regular season games to begin on May 5.

The KBO isn’t just a place for struggling big leaguers to make a paycheck. All-Star pitcher Hyun-Jun Ryu began his careers there. And guys like Eric Thames and Miles Mikolas restarted their careers there before returning to success in the big leagues.

While the game is slightly different — there are only 10 teams, the top five make the playoffs, the No. 1 seed goes directly to the finals, the designated hitter is universal and regular season games are declared ties after 12 innings — it’s still baseball.

Any players who were abroad during the layoff will require a two-week self-quarantine before they can return to their clubs, which seems like a plan that should be mandatory if MLB restarts as well.

There are a lot of similarities to the plan the KBO is using with the loose plan MLB is considering in Arizona, where there are 11 stadiums within about 90 minutes of each other and would make for relatively easy access to parks while insulating the players in a virtual bubble.

Unlike in Arizona, there will be some travel to team’s home cities in South Korea. While three teams play in , the other seven are spread out within a 200-mile radius, all accessible by bus travel. For the preseason portion of the schedule, teams will only play other teams located no more than 30 miles from one another to avoid overnight stays, according to the plan outlined by the Yonhap News Agency.

It’s not clear if players are allowed to stay with their families, which would not be granted to players in Arizona, as Dr. Anthony Fauci has said the plan would only work if players stay quarantined in hotels.

The games will be played without fans to start. Fauci has said that’s likely the only acceptable scenario in the U.S. as well, though he said it’s possible some fans could be permitted if the public health situation improves during the season.

“That is possible,” Fauci told YES Network’s Jack Curry on an episode of “Yes We’re Here.” “But as you said, and I affirm what I have been saying, it’s going to be the virus that determines what the timetable is. Because if we get the virus under really good control and certain regions of the country can get gradually from the gateway to the phase one to the phase two to the phase three, it is conceivable that you may be able to have some baseball with people practicing physical separation. Namely, you don’t pack a stadium.

“I think quite likely, although it’s always dangerous to predict, I think it’s more likely that you’re going to have more of a television baseball than a spectator baseball.”

Players must travel to and from the parks wearing masks, though masks are not required during the games. They’ll have their temperature taken before entering the stadium and twice in total each day. If anyone shows symptoms, the player will be quarantined and the stadium shut down for at least two days.

If anyone tests positive, the league agreed to be shut down for three weeks, minimum.

Umpires are required to wear masks and gloves, as will anyone else (team personnel, bat boys and girls, etc.) who travels with the team to the stadium.

It’s unclear how much of a pay cut, if any, players had to take in South Korea. And while it seems likely that would happen in MLB, players are fighting against the idea.

There are undoubtedly more hoops to jump through for MLB, and a resume of play seems far off. But watching it unfold elsewhere will be a good tell for those of us yearning for baseball here in America.

* MassLive.com

MLB in Texas? League discussing 3-state plan for starting season (report)

Chris Cotillo

Major League Baseball has discussed a plan for a return to play that would include teams playing in Texas in addition to Florida and Arizona, according to CBS Sports’ R.J. Anderson. According to Anderson, one source expressed “guarded optimism” that the three-state proposal could come to fruition.

Anderson reports the proposal would call for teams to be spread out among three hubs -- in Arizona, Florida and Texas -- and and use major league stadiums, minor league fields and spring training sites to play in relative isolation at the beginning of the year. In Texas, teams could utilize the two major league parks (Houston’s Minute Maid Park and Arlington’s new Globe Life Field) while also playing in minor league stadiums around the state.

With the start of the MLB season indefinitely delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the league and the MLB Players Association are discussing a wide range of unique proposals to get play underway as soon as possible. The most likely of those plans, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, involves all 30 teams playing in Arizona, but the league has also reportedly considered splitting its teams geographically and playing the regular season using spring training leagues instead of the traditional American and National Leagues.

Texas’ involvement is a new development and shows that baseball is not set on the “Arizona plan,” which has been reported as the most likely avenue to begin the season in a non-traditional way. Earlier Tuesday, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said he “fully anticipates” baseball being played in 2020 and Dr. Anthony Fauci laid out some conditions for a return to play.

Minor League Baseball denies report of contraction agreement: ‘There have been no agreements’

Chris Cotillo

Minor League Baseball issued a statement Tuesday night denying that an agreement had been reached on a proposal to significantly contract the number of minor league teams in baseball.

“Recent articles on the negotiations between MiLB and Major League Baseball (MLB) are largely inaccurate,” the statement read. “There have been no agreements on contraction or any other issues. MiLB looks forward to continuing the good faith negotiations with MLB tomorrow as we work toward an agreement that best ensures the future of professional baseball throughout the United States and Canada.”

Earlier Tuesday, Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper reported that MiLB was resigned to the fact it would have to contract from 160 teams to 120 as part of its new collective bargaining agreement with Major League Baseball. Though MiLB had worked to fend off MLB’s push for contraction and realignment throughout the minors, according to Cooper, the economic effects of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic had left MiLB resigned to the inevitability of contraction.

The MiLB statement leaves room for interpretation, and it’s important to point out that it didn’t completely rule out the possibility for significant contraction. Locally, the Lowell Spinners (the short-season Single-A affiliate of the Red Sox) have been rumored to be one of the teams in danger of being eliminated.

* WEEI.com

Dr. Anthony Fauci hints baseball fans could return to ballparks in 2020

Rob Bradford

The man who always seems to have a plan throughout this COVID-19 crisis has broken out a blueprint that baseball fans might actually like.

Appearing on the YES Network, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, offered a glimmer of hope in regards to the idea that fans might be allowed in baseball stadiums this season to watch real, live Major League Baseball.

"People who know more about baseball structure have said it but I think it’s reasonable. You can either have the situation where you get the group of players and you put them in a few cities," Fauci explained to the YES Network's Jack Curry. "You make sure they’re not infected. You test them so they don’t infect each other. And you have baseball, as much as it’s tough to say, in a spectator-less environment. In an environment in which people can watch it on television. The revenues aren’t going to be the same as when you have a packed stadium.

"But I think having them play on television is certainly better than nothing.

"Another version of that is to limit the amount of people in a stadium and make sure you seat them in a way that they are really quite separated. And maybe even wearing the facial covers than a mask. I know people look at that and say, ‘What are you crazy?’ But to me, it’s better than no baseball at all. That’s the point."

The Chinese Professional Baseball League has begun its regular season without fans, with the Korean Baseball Organization scheduled to follow suit starting May 5.

It is estimated that nearly 40 percent of baseball teams' revenue each year comes from those attending the games. And with the uncertainty regarding if and when fans will be allowed back in ballparks, there has recently been some disagreement between the MLB Players' Association and MLB regarding how fan-less games might impact the players' pay structure.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred did recently issue a memorandum throughout baseball operations departments that he fully anticipates baseball to return this season (according to ESPN's Jeff Passan).

* The Athletic

Minor League Baseball might agree to drop teams, but many issues remain in talks

Evan Drellich

Minor League Baseball may indeed be ready to lose some teams and acquiesce to Major League Baseball’s desire to drop the number of farm teams directly affiliated with the big leagues. The two sides are scheduled to speak digitally Wednesday in their first official meeting since the COVID-19 crisis halted business as usual.

But as is often the case during major negotiations, the devil is in the details.

Two reports Tuesday, the first from Baseball America and the second from The Associated Press, pointed to Minor League Baseball’s willingness to bend on the core tenet of the 120 plan — so named because, under the MLB proposal, the number of official affiliates would be cut from 160. MLB is seeking greater efficiency, both in cost savings and player development, be it by eliminating teams with poor stadiums or by reduced travel in realigned leagues.

A massive outcry came from politicians and Minor League Baseball officials last year when MLB first made such a proposal. Their fear was that too many teams removed from the system would not survive. The economics at all levels of the sport have changed drastically since 2019, in obvious ways. The major- league season is delayed indefinitely, and the minor-league season might not begin at all.

The leverage has shifted, and Minor League Baseball knows it. Politicians can’t rally behind the minors the way they did months ago, not with the country now in a broad crisis. The feeling among at least some minor-league owners, then, is that a variant of the 120 plan could work, as long as MLB makes enough other concessions, including support for some of the teams that would be removed from the traditional umbrella.

“The key is finding compensation in some form or fashion for the teams that are going to be eliminated, and there will be teams that will be eliminated,” one minor-league owner said.

All along, MLB said it intended to usher the eliminated teams into a structure that would give some of them a chance to exist independently. Minor-league owners disagreed, vehemently, that most teams would be able to survive outside the normal framework.

What minor-league owners want now is for MLB to make the math more palatable, both for the teams that would be trimmed from the structure and for the 120 that would remain.

That’s the rub at the moment — where both sides draw the line on the other requests. There are two core pieces for Minor League Baseball: how much it gives to MLB with the so-called ticket tax, which is a portion of the gate that goes back to MLB, and how long this next agreement lasts. From the minor-league perspective, a longer deal is better. The minors don’t want to have to scramble to defend their franchise values every five years.

After the two published reports Tuesday, Minor League Baseball put out a statement that, at least at a quick glance, appeared to temper its position: “Recent articles on the negotiations between MiLB and Major League Baseball (MLB) are largely inaccurate. There have been no agreements on contraction or any other issues. MiLB looks forward to continuing the good faith negotiations with MLB tomorrow as we work toward an agreement that best ensures the future of professional baseball throughout the United States and Canada.”

Indeed, no agreements exist between the sides, but there also were not any reported. Instead, the parties appear closer to landing on the same page — with considerable lengths yet to go. Although official meetings have been on hold, there have been back-channel, individual conversations between the sides. The Professional Baseball Agreement, the deal between the majors and minors, expires this fall, when a normal season would have ended.

With so many ownership voices, the minor-league owners will find it difficult to attain unanimity. Just as major-league ownership groups sometimes differ based on market size, minor-league owners often disagree. All minor-league franchises are in a perilous spot now without games, but Triple-A franchises are typically better positioned for the long term than, say, short-season teams, which may disappear entirely from the landscape in a new deal. MLB is keenly interested in reducing the number of rounds in the draft, and short-season teams are typically filled with players entering pro ball after the draft.

“Is there division in the ranks? Absolutely,” said one minor-league owner. “And Major League Baseball, they were wise to understand that was going to begin happening the closer we got to a date (of expiration). And now we have coronavirus hanging over everybody’s head. Where dollars and cents may not have meant as much to major-league owners four months or even two months ago, now it means a lot more. Saving $2 million a year means a lot for a major-league team right now.”

Further complicating matters is Minor League Baseball’s governance. MiLB has a central office in Florida, but some owners are interested in potentially allowing MLB to absorb Minor League Baseball — for the right concessions. For example, MLB could offer involvement in media deals, which could be a boon to minor-league owners. Another arrangement could enable major-league owners to benefit from the rise of minor-league franchise values. Marketing gains are possible as well.

Those topics have not been broached at the table yet, sources said, but there’s a chance they will be. Either way, minor-league owners feel the league office may have its own self-interest in mind, to some degree. It’s a tricky time for Minor League Baseball president Pat O’Conner, to say the least.

As discussions proceed, MLB may threaten to simply let the PBA expire and dissolve the standardized relationships. But MLB teams likely don’t want to abandon the entire structure — in part because such a move could provoke fresh blowback from politicians and local communities.

One point of leverage that might play to Minor League Baseball’s favor: MLB may find it difficult to go back for seconds, to ask for even more large concessions on top of the removal of 42 teams from the system. In this economic climate for the sport, minor-league owners may feel they have to accept whatever they’re offered. But if those same owners can portray MLB as double-dipping amid a pandemic, using COVID-19 to maximize their leverage, the back-and-forth could grow publicly messy again.