Los Angeles Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw has some doubts about some of the latest ideas being discussed to get the season going if it means being away from his family for months.
Major League Baseball has reportedly been contemplating a scenario where teams play in spring training ballparks in both Arizona and Florida with no fans in attendance and players remain quarantined in hotels. That scenario is not something Kershaw believes will be accepted by a majority of the players.
“We all want to play baseball. I get that; I want to play baseball too,” Kershaw told Arash Markazi of the LA Times. “But there is something about being in the big leagues and you can’t compromise that. Playing in spring training stadiums and quarantining for months without your family and certain things like that, I don’t think that’s doable if you’re talking about doing it for four to five months.
“You just lose the product on the field because guys aren’t in their natural element. We’re all ready to take drastic measures to make this season happen, but there’s also certain things that will affect the product on the field, and that’s what you have to be careful about.”
Kershaw isn’t the only player who is skeptical about the possibility of having players quarantined from their families in a city for an extended period.
Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout told NBC Sports that there are some red flags that come up especially if he is asked to be away from his wife who is pregnant.
“What are you going to do with family members? My wife is pregnant, what am I going to do when she goes into labor — am I going to have to quarantine for two weeks after I come back?” Trout explained. “Obviously I can’t miss the birth of our first child. There are a lot of red flags, there are a lot of questions.”
For Kershaw and the Dodgers, there was a lot of excitement this season after the acquisition of Mookie Betts and David Price from the Boston Red Sox. If the season cannot be played, Betts would still become a free agent as he only has one year left on his current deal.
“That’s the most frustrating thing,” the 32-year-old Kershaw said. “We brought in Mookie and David and traded some really good talent to get them, so to not have a season would be hard.
“The Dodgers have been built to win a World Series every year that I’ve been here, but to not get that chance this year with the talent that we have would be frustrating. So I’m hopeful we can get something started because we had a lot of optimism.”
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