There is no light at the end of the tunnel for Major League Baseball or the Pirates yet.
As the COVID-19 shutdown continues, there is no planned or proposed scenario set for when the season could start, or even when teams can reconvene. Discussions have centered around starting the season in June or July in either each team's spring training facility or just Arizona, and then playing games later into the year to make up for lost time. However, there is concern that the public health situation will not get better in time and the season could ultimately be cancelled.
The Pirates have been preparing for a variety of scenarios for what the upcoming year might look like, and they are optimistic that it involves a season.
“I wake up every day believing we are going to play games," Ben Cherington said in a conference call Tuesday afternoon. "I’m probably optimistic by nature, so I generally, most days, I kind of think about how things are going to get better and not in the other direction. Maybe that influences how I think about how [we'll] potentially [play] a season in 2020.
"But I do believe we’re going to play games. That doesn’t mean I know we will. We’ve got to plan for every scenario, but we’re spending more of our energy – maybe that’s because we’re optimistic – trying to think about how to prepare for those games, not knowing when or where or how exactly they’ll be played."
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