It has been five weeks since Major League Baseball suspended the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and there are a number of plans the league has considered for how to get the season started.
Most of the ideas involve radical change to the structure of the season, but the Pirates' new manager, Derek Shelton, is in favor of doing what it takes to get the season started safely.
"The most important thing is we'd get back to playing baseball," Shelton told our news partner WPXI-TV from his Florida home Wednesday.
One of the most popular proposals is to have all 30 teams begin the season in Arizona, creating a biosphere for the players, minimizing travel and reducing the risk of contracting or spreading COVID-19.
While the Pirates are preparing for different scenarios, they are trying not to speculate what the beginning of the season might look like.
"One of the personal stances I've taken on all of these things is we're not going to speculate," Shelton said. "There's the situation that they've talked publicly about in Arizona. They've talked about Florida and Arizona and the Cactus and Grapefruit league. One of the things we strongly feel, and I strongly feel, is that we're not gonna speculate. We're not gonna plan a world where we're going to say we're going to do X, Y and Z until we know what we're going to do. Then we'll start to have those discussions."
Regardless of when and how the season starts, those first games will very likely take place in empty stadiums, as mass gatherings will still be discouraged, if not outlawed.
“It will be difficult without fans, but if that’s the way we’re going to do it, and people would be able to watch [on television], then I think we have to look at all ideas,” Shelton said.
Even if there are no fans in the stands, a return for baseball would bring a sense a normalcy back to the world.
“The one thing we need to get back to is sports, because sports help countries heal,” he said.
The full 11-minute interview, conducted by WPXI's Alby Oxenreiter, can be found here:
