Nearly two months removed from the start of the coronavirus shutdown, there is still no official proposed start date for Major League Baseball. That may change in the near future, though, as the league is expected to submit its first proposal to the Players Association about restarting spring training and getting the season underway.
The Pirates' coaching staff did not wait to outline their own plan for how the second spring training will be run, though they still don't know what it will look like.
“We have started to toss ideas around of how we would function in different places, how we would stagger workouts and get our pitchers and position players in," Derek Shelton said this week.
Players and workouts may need to be staggered if Pennsylvania's restriction of public gatherings of more than 25 people is not lifted, but logistical issues could also make staggering necessary.
It's still unclear where this second spring training will take place. One plan MLB has considered has the players spending the entire season in an Arizona biosphere, and another has them returning to Bradenton. The most recent proposal has them returning to PNC Park for spring training. The facilities are limited here compared to Bradenton. PNC Park has two indoor batting cages, five pitching mounds and, quite literally, one field. Bradenton has 5.5 fields at the players’ disposal, and far more mounds and cages, too.
If there is staggering, position players and pitchers will be mixed, and those groupings can change as camp progresses. If that happens, pitching and hitting coaches would also need to be split up to be with each grouping.
Shelton has emphasized to his staff that they are not going to speculate which proposal MLB will choose, but they have to be prepared for any scenario, just in case. That doesn't make the preparation any easier, though.
“It makes it difficult not knowing the specifics as far as the number of players, staff and where it’s going to be, when it’s going to start," bench coach Don Kelly told me yesterday over the phone.
Kelly ran spring training at Pirate City, the same way Shelton did in Fort Myers for the Twins when he was their bench coach from 2018-2019. Shelton and the players spoke highly of how Kelly ran camp in February, but this is an unprecedented situation.
Originally, spring training was supposed to be about six weeks, from the first workout to the end of spring games. It looks like the second camp will be three weeks, or only half as long.
The staff has also spent more time together in Bradenton than Pittsburgh. The Pirates are returning just three coaches from 2019: Hitting coach Rick Eckstein, bullpen coach Justin Meccage and third base coach Joey Cora. The six new members of the staff -- including Shelton and Kelly -- have only been to PNC Park as visitors.
If the second spring training was to be held in Arizona instead, most of the players will be in a new situation, but coaches like Glenn Sherlock, who spent 19 years as a Diamondbacks coach, and Oscar Marin, who had been an instructor with the Mariners and Rangers, would be more familiar with the facilities. However, with 30 teams converging and only 11 fields at their disposal, that would create more scheduling problems.
To compensate for these potential changes, Shelton joked that he has been sending Kelly 80 texts a day so they can be prepared.
“I think it keeps us both sane," Shelton said.
Ok, but 80?
"It’s not that many, but it’s a lot," Kelly said, laughing. "We’ve been staying in touch constantly throughout the days and weeks as things have evolved.”
That much communication is almost a necessity at this point though as they try to prepare for when camp will resume, and where. Emphasis on where.
“Everything is possible. Really, we have no idea where it’s gonna be," Kelly said.
So if it's at PNC Park, could the coaching staff pull it off?
“There’s no doubt that it’s doable,” Kelly responded.
MORE PIRATES
• The Starling Marte trade keeps looking better the longer the shutdown goes. While nobody could have foreseen this delay when the trade happened, 2020 will still count as a full season for him, whether or not a game is played. The Pirates would have received a much smaller return had they waited to trade him until midseason or next offseason, and the shutdown would only make his market worse since fewer games will be played in 2020. On the flip side, if Chris Archer returns to form and the Pirates try to trade him this winter, he might be in higher demand since he is due just $11 million in 2020. Teams may be more budget conscious so they can recoup some of their 2020 losses, and Archer could be a good arm on a team-friendly contract. -- Stumpf
• Talk has picked up this week about starting the regular season in early July. If the same applies for minor-league baseball, teams will have to decide if it is worth playing an eight week season, extending the campaign through September -- thus shortening the offseason for their youngest players -- or just cancelling the season. The third option, cancel the season, seems the most likely, especially since there is no guarantee they could even get started in early July. Minor league spring training was not as far along as MLB spring training was before the shutdown, so they might not be able to get ready in just three weeks like the big leaguers theoretically could. -- Stumpf
PENGUINS
• Nikita Pavlychev, who just closed out his collegiate career at Penn State, is one of the most intriguing prospects on the Penguins' organizational depth chart, in large part because he is 6-foot-7, 225 pounds. But precisely where Pavlychev, who was their seventh-round draft choice in 2015, fits into their long-range plans -- or whether he even does -- isn't clear. For while the Penguins are trying to work out a contract with Pavlychev, it would cover him playing in the American Hockey League, with no provision for him being in the NHL. "That's what we're trying to work through with this right now," Jim Rutherford said. "Get him in the American League for a year and then go from there." If Pavlychev would accept such a deal, he would be reunited with former Nittany Lions teammate Chase Berger in Wilkes-Barre but would not be eligible for a promotion to the NHL unless he signed a new contract to play there. What happens if another team offers a player working on an AHL contract an NHL deal isn't clear, perhaps because it isn't a common occurrence. One executive with another club said the player cannot accept the new proposal unless there is an "out" clause in his AHL agreement, but a top official from a third team said that it's "generally understood" that a player in that situation will be released from his minor-league obligation unless his original team wants to upgrade the contract to an NHL deal. -- Dave Molinari
• Ron Francis played for Bob Johnson, Scott Bowman, Eddie Johnston and Kevin Constantine during his days with the Penguins. Those experiences undoubtedly will help to shape his decision on whom he'll select to be the first coach of the Seattle expansion club that will begin play in the 2021-22 season, although some of his criteria for picking a coach who will lead a new team might be a bit different. "In a perfect situation, you get someone who has some experience," Francis said. "That would be the preference. As you're trying to get all these new faces and merge them together into a team, it certainly helps to know that you have somebody who has some experience, and you don't have to look in the direction of the coach. We're open to looking at any and all possibilities, but I think that in today's game, with a new team, you want somebody who is technically strong and communicates well." -- Molinari
• NHL officials have made it quite clear that they would like to conduct the draft in June, regardless of whether the 2019-20 season resumes at some point, and the Penguins -- who own just four picks, one each in Rounds 3-6 -- seem to be prepared to participate. Never mind that the coronavirus pandemic caused their scouts to miss out on a final few opportunities -- most notably, the under-18 world championships -- to assess some of the players who will be available. "From an evaluation point of view and having our (prospects) list ready, I would say that we're ready to go," Rutherford said. "Our staff has done a good job, as always. They're constantly communicating and talking about players. That under-18 tournament usually carries quite a bit of weight on the final adjustment on the draft, but (no team) has an advantage on that. It's the same for everybody." Regardless of when it is held, this will be the league's first draft to be conducted by video. Rutherford, though, believes the Penguins' IT people will prevent any snags on the team'e end. "They can do pretty much anything," he said. "They're pretty good." -- Molinari
STEELERS
• The NFL is set to go to a 17-game schedule as soon as 2021. It might have to. According to some estimates, if the league plays games in front of empty stadiums this fall, the 2021 salary cap could be as much as $40 to $60 million lower than the current level. That's based on each team losing $100 million based on playing a 16-game schedule without fans. Of course, those estimates also assume teams will simply give season ticket holders their money back if games are cancelled. The more likely scenario is that teams will simply roll the money over to the 2021 season. They're not likely to write 65,000 checks each. That's why the league is moving forward with its regular season schedule, which was released Thursday night. Now, whether that schedule actually takes place as planned is another matter. But the NFL, like other leagues, has a lot of reasons to want to play games. The league would survive if it had to play in front of empty seats because of the TV contract. -- Dale Lolley on the North Shore
• If you wonder why the NFC is deeper than the AFC right now, realize that there are 13 quarterbacks in the NFC who are earning an average of $21 million or more per year. In the AFC, there are five. And two, Jacoby Brissett and Phillip Rivers play for the Colts. Certainly, there are outliers. Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson, for example, are still playing on their rookie contracts and have won the last two league MVP awards. But the more established quarterbacks are in the NFC. Ben Roethlisberger is the highest-paid quarterback in the AFC and one of the few who have a proven track record -- especially in the postseason. In fact, Roethlisberger's 13 playoff wins -- tied for fourth all-time -- are as many as all of the other quarterbacks in the AFC have combined. -- Lolley
• There seems to be a prevalent thought that because Chuks Okorafor was inactive for most games in 2019, he is some kind of bust. But after appearing in 13 games -- two starts -- in his rookie season, Okorafor was inactive for 15 of the Steelers' 16 games last season, making a spot start at right tackle in November when Ramon Foster was out and Matt Feiler slid in to play guard. Okorafor had labrum surgery on his shoulder last offseason. It's an injury that typically takes a full year from which to recover and get back to normal strength. That's why the Steelers feel good about Okorafor going into the 2020 season. He's also still just 22 years old, not turning 23 until August. That makes him younger than a good number of the offensive tackles taken in this year's draft. Okorafor could very well be the team's starting right tackle this season -- pushing Feiler to guard on a full-time basis -- and then move to the left side in 2021 to replace Alejandro Villanueva, whose contract will be up. -- Lolley
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