Royals GM Dayton Moore sees a light at the end of the tunnel for Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball has tried to keep its collective engine humming on a steady basis the past month and a half. Minus the actual playing of baseball, of course.
But Kansas City Royals general manager Dayton Moore sees an on-field return getting closer with each passing day.
The Royals should have played 29 games by this point in the season. Mike Matheny’s tenure as manager should have started in earnest. Salvador Perez’s return from Tommy John surgery should be in full swing.
Instead, Kauffman Stadium remains as quiet as a library.
“I think we’re getting closer,” Moore said during a Zoom conference call with reporters on Tuesday afternoon. “I’m more hopeful today than I was yesterday, and I was pretty hopeful yesterday. I think we’re really getting close to a plan that we can all rally behind and focus on, but that has not been settled at this point in time.”
MLB suspended spring training and postponed the start of its season as a result of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic on March 12. Subsequently, all spring training operations were suspended and training facilities were closed.
The start of the MLB season, originally pushed back two weeks, was delayed indefinitely once the Center for Disease Control recommended restricting gatherings of more than 50 people through the middle of May.
MLB has been under a transaction “freeze,” so no signings or trades have taken place while the season has been suspended. The regular season was scheduled to begin on March 26, and the Royals were slated to hold their home opener at Kauffman Stadium on April 2.
Moore remained steadfast in his belief that the region and local community will continue to support baseball if and when it returns.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that the people of the Midwest, the citizens of the Midwest are going to come back and they’re going to support baseball,” said Moore, a Wichita native. “They’re going to go to games once the gathering restrictions have been lifted. We’re very resilient people. We care deeply about the success of one another. So I’m confident that when that time comes, we’ll all rally behind our teams and support one another.”
Communication between the club and other officials in MLB remains constant. Moore said he has daily conversations with either another general manager or someone working in the commissioner’s office, particularly with details of the upcoming draft still being sorted out.
The MLB Draft remains scheduled for June 10, though it is expected to be a much shorter version than in the past. MLB and the MLB Players Association reached an agreement that allows this year’s draft to be shortened to as few as five rounds.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred holds a weekly conference call with the owners of all 30 clubs, and Moore and Royals CEO and chairman John Sherman typically talk after that call.
And members of the Royals front office both on the baseball operations and business side have a weekly call with officials from the MLB office who provide a general status update.
This period has included encouraging signs. Earlier this month, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he sees a path for professional sports to return without fans in the stands and with players tested regularly for the coronavirus.
“As far as testing and those types of things — whatever they tell us we need to do, we’ll do,” Moore said. “Speaking to our players and speaking to our staff, we’re going to do whatever is necessary to get back and playing baseball. We realize that there’s risk in everything that you do, and we will trust the individuals that have evaluated that. Then once it’s time to begin working out, preparing for the season, we’ll go to work.”
Several scenarios have been reported that would call for teams to sequester players in one area or in several isolated areas — such as Arizona, Florida and/or Texas, in order to start the season in controlled environments.
The latest scenario reported by USA Today on Tuesday, proposes having MLB teams play in their own home ballparks with no fans in the stands. The plan, which reportedly could get the season started by late June or early July, also features a new three-division, 10-team format in which teams play only within their division. The divisions would be based on geography to limit travel. This format would eliminate the split between American League and National League teams.
Moore didn’t endorse any one plan, and he repeatedly came back to the refrain that his club is willing to do whatever is needed to return to the field.
However, his preference would certainly be to play games in Kansas City.
“It’s hard to imagine us not playing baseball in front of our fans here at Kauffman Stadium, or at least playing in our city,” Moore said. “Again, we’ll do whatever we need to do for the good of the game. But it’s hard to imagine, and I suspect that most people feel that way. But again, we’ll do what we need to do.
“But, you know, let’s face it, our part of the country hasn’t been hit as tough as some others. And again, I go back to the psychology and the mental toughness of the individuals in the citizens of the Midwest and I believe that our people are tough enough to push through this in a very smart, healthy, and measured way when the time is right.”
This story was originally published April 29, 2020 at 10:08 AM.
