The Boston Red Sox Saturday, March 14, 2020 * The Boston Globe Baseball matters become inconsequential as Red Sox, MLB stare down long delay Peter Abraham FORT MYERS, Fla. — Red Sox team president Sam Kennedy, chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, and general manager Brian O’Halloran took questions from reporters for nearly an hour on Friday afternoon. None of us asked about how the final two spots in the rotation will be filled, whether the roster might include a third catcher, or if Alex Verdugo has started to swing a bat. What would be the point? Baseball questions have been rendered meaningless as sports are covered through the lens of the coronavirus pandemic. Everything now is logistics, timetables, and what could come next. We heard about Fenway Park being disinfected over three days starting on Saturday, and that the Sox will consider some kind of plan to support their game-day staff if they start missing work. The team even has its own coronavirus task force. The only topic that’s important is dealing with a national emergency. Sox officials were careful to say that public health and the well-being of team employees were paramount in their thinking, and certainly everybody understands that. But people also want to know when they can expect to see a baseball game at Fenway Park or on their television again. Sports may be trivial, but take them away for even just a few days and you realize how important it is to have something like baseball to look forward to, if only to shut your mind down a little bit. “We know a lot of people out there look to sports and look to the Red Sox for a distraction, for a pick-me- up during tough times,” Bloom said. “It pains us, all of us in the front office, our staff, our players, that right now we’re not going to be able to provide that.” It’s not going to be any time soon, either. On Thursday, it appeared that teams would hunker down at their spring training sites and continue to prepare for the season. That changed Friday after a meeting in Arizona that included commissioner Rob Manfred and Players Association chief Tony Clark. Now players have a choice to stay at their spring training locations, go home, or go to their team’s home city. The Sox, like other teams, will want to know where the players are going and how they’ll get there. “We’re in the process of figuring that out,” Bloom said. The Yankees, according to reliever Zack Britton, voted unanimously to stick together in Tampa and work out as a team. It’s not yet clear how the Red Sox will approach it. The Sox players met on Friday morning, well before the agreement was made to let the players go home if they wanted. That the players are being allowed to go home strongly suggests that there is little chance of the season starting after only a two-week break, which is what MLB suggested was possible on Thursday. It’s clear that some kind of mini spring training will be needed to get players ready to play once there is a date for Opening Day. “Certainly we’re talking a few weeks. But how long exactly may depend on when we’re able to start up again,” Bloom said. “There will still be a need for build-up.” The only baseball matter that came up was whether Chris Sale would start throwing again to test the condition of his left elbow. He will, sometime in the next few days. The Sox need to figure out whether he will need surgery. But even that seemed inconsequential given the other questions. Kennedy was asked at one point if any person in the organization had been tested for the virus. It hasn’t come to that yet, fortunately. A few people were sent home sick, but none with symptoms that suggested they need a test. “But we are realistic,” Kennedy said. That will be the next step in this fast-moving story, how baseball reacts when a player or coach contracts the virus. It seems inevitable given the circumstances. MLB players come from across the world, and a typical spring training roster at this stage has 45 or so players. If even one team is directly affected, that could push the season back even more. “This is unprecedented,” said Bloom, who has a wife and two children he’s concerned about. “We’re all doing the best we can with it.” Red Sox leadership addresses suspension due to coronavirus: No one sick yet; players are welcome to leave Julian McWilliams FORT MYERS, Fla. — The recent coronavirus outbreak has sent much of the country into operation shutdown. Major League Baseball joined the rest of the major professional sports leagues Thursday afternoon with its decision to suspend spring training and the first two weeks of the season. On Friday, Red Sox president Sam Kennedy, chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, and general manager Brian O’Halloran outlined how the team will press forward. “None of us here at the Red Sox have ever lived through anything like this,” Kennedy said via conference call. “Hopefully we’ll never have to experience anything like it ever again. When these things happen, there’s no script, there’s no playbook. For the Red Sox right now, we’re guided by one thing, and that’s public safety.” The organization met with players Friday morning to map out what’s considered a fluid plan. At that time, it was unclear if players would be allowed to go home if they chose; the league and the MLB Player Association granted them that opportunity later Friday. If players decide to stay, they can utilize the JetBlue Park facilities, with no restrictions as of this point relating to on-field workouts. “Obviously we’re going to continue to intensify all the precautions we take to make sure this is a clean and safe environment for everybody,” Bloom said. “It’s a new situation for all of us. We wanted to make sure that we were keeping everybody informed. We’re all adjusting on the fly here as we learn more about what this means for the country and what this means for our industry.” The sudden halt also puts a stop to the players’ progression. Nate Eovaldi, for instance, had at least two more Grapefruit League starts. The work stoppage will set not just him, but all the pitchers back. Once the Sox can resume play, Bloom acknowledged that there will once again have to be a build-up process, or, in simpler terms, a second spring training. He thinks it would take the players a few weeks to get back into playing shape. Particularly for the pitchers, it will be tricky. “This is one of the tougher questions every club is going to have to answer, because a lot of preparation for the season is usually working backward from a known and defined start date, and we don’t have that right now,” Bloom said. "[Pitching coach] Dave Bush and our other staff have been communicating with players on this. Given the news today that we know some players may choose to leave, that might change the guidance a little bit. It will be different, case by case.” Chris Sale still hasn’t thrown. This layoff might give the Red Sox a bit more time to determine if he’s healthy enough to take the mound this season. “Right now for Chris, strictly from a medical perspective, nothing really changes with that because we knew that he would be unable to pitch in a game for a while,” Bloom said. “Obviously there’s uncertainty over his pitching status generally, and we’re still going to want to resolve that. We’re still going to want to progress him.” Back in Boston, the Sox are taking every precaution necessary. They have told workers, with the exception of security, to stay home, and said they have hired Aramark to perform a three-day deep cleaning of Fenway Park. The MLB season is currently scheduled to begin April 9, when the Sox are slated to play the Seattle Mariners at their place. Not only is that date a stretch, Washington has a ban on events with more than 250 people through the end of March. Regardless of when the season starts, Kennedy said MLB has a soft plan in place to make up lost games. “The current thinking is that MLB games missed before the schedule starts will be added on at the end of this season,” Kennedy said. “Subject to change, but [that] means the regular season would be pushed into October.” Kennedy added that the club has thought of every scenario, including playing in empty stadiums. “We’ll see what happens,” Kennedy said. “Certainly no firm plans. Obviously we’ll have to be in agreement on whatever plan we come up with. Whatever final plan we come up with, there needs to be a mutual understanding with the Players Association. I’m confident everyone will pull together.” * The Boston Herald Red Sox players cleared to leave spring training facilities due to coronavirus Steve Hewitt As the Red Sox come to grips with the ongoing coronavirus crisis that’s put the pause button on the sports world, they’re not unlike any other team or league. Simply, there’s not much clarity about how they proceed from here. “Clearly an unprecedented period in our world’s history, certainly in our country’s history,” Red Sox president Sam Kennedy said on a conference call Friday.