After weeks of back-and-forth between Major League Baseball and its players over safety and pay, a statement Tuesday from MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred indicated that the league will indeed move forward with a shortened season, starting sometime in late July. And with the MLB Players Association also on board, fans have more cause than ever to expect games this summer.
But medical ethicist and baseball fan Art Caplan remained skeptical that MLB can pull the season off, saying Wednesday on Boston Public Radio that the league still faces “a bunch of problems” in operating safely with full player participation.
“Look,” Caplan said, "you guys already know there’s been big outbreaks at so-called spring training, informal spring training, right? They had to shut the whole thing down in Florida… and the Phillies had a lot of people who got sick… Toronto’s had ‘em, and the Giants… Colorado, one of the big stars there tested positive.”
“We already know that it’s gonna be tough to just do this around conditioning,” he said. "If you add in travel... the more you travel, the tougher it is to prevent infection.”
Unlike the NBA, which is confining its entire league to Walt Disney World for its upcoming season, baseball’s players will continue to travel for games– though with some limits.
But Caplan argued that any traveling creates a risk of spreading the coronavirus. "The more you move around, the more you’ve got baggage handlers and bus drivers, and people who are permitting the move,” he said. "And that’s where the risks are. You’re not gonna be able to control all those folks."
Art Caplan is the Drs. William F and Virginia Connolly Mitty Chair, and director of the Division of Medical Ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
