Given choice, many Mariners opt to stay in camp

PEORIA, Ariz. -- What initially appeared to be a temporary holding pattern on Major League Baseball’s season took on a much firmer look Friday as MLB announced it was immediately suspending all Spring Training operations and players have the option of heading home as the nation deals with the coronavirus threat.

The Mariners will send home the approximately 150 Minor League players in their camp, but 43 of the 53 players who were invited to remain in Major League camp are opting to stay in Arizona and continue working out at the club’s facility and seven others were still pondering the decision as of Friday night, according to general manager Jerry Dipoto.

All players on the 40-man roster, including those who had been sent down to Minor League camp earlier this spring, as well as 13 non-roster invitees still in camp were invited to stay.

? FAQ: How coronavirus impacts Mariners, MLB

Dipoto said only three players had opted not to stay as of Friday evening, while the other seven had until noon PT on Saturday to finalize their decisions.

The decision to allow players to head home was made in conjunction with the MLB Players Association. Dipoto said only one player from the club’s 40-man roster has chosen to depart, and those leaving were understandably doing so for family reasons.

“That could change, because people are people and they have the ability to change their minds, but right now, we’re pretty excited about the fact that the players want to stay together,” Dipoto said. “And frankly, we think that’s probably a good thing for the health and well-being of the group.”

MLB announced Thursday that it was postponing the final two weeks of Cactus and Grapefruit League games and at least the first two weeks of the regular season. The Mariners met at 9:15 a.m. PT Friday to discuss plans moving forward, then reconvened at 1 p.m. after MLB’s decision to fully suspend operations.

The latest action means the Mariners’ facility will be completely closed to the media, fans and guests, with just players and staff allowed in the complex until camps are reopened.

Dipoto said the Mariners’ complex will be completely shut down on Saturday as the facility will be “deep cleaned” to limit any coronavirus threat, then reopened to players on Sunday. Workouts will be limited initially. While players will hit in cages and pitchers will be allowed to throw in the bullpens, there won’t be any organized on-field activity at the outset, and players will be split into smaller groups to limit the exposure to each other.

“We are preparing like we are in the early days of spring and we are going to continue to maintain the levels we’ve built with our players to this point,” Dipoto said. “We aren’t going to build on to anything. We aren’t going to increase workload. We are just going to try and keep players where they are so they don’t lose the foundation that they’ve built to this point. But we have no expectation of playing anytime soon.”

Manager Scott Servais and some of the Major League coaching staff will remain. Dipoto said he’ll be the only front-office member staying in Arizona, while the rest will return to Seattle or their homes to work remotely.

The unusual circumstances had Dipoto wishing he had more training in “crisis management,” and he was not alone in that regard as the situation changed seemingly hour by hour over the last two days.

Baseball players are largely creatures of habit, so having their routine shattered and games abruptly canceled just two weeks before the start of the season came as a shock Thursday afternoon, when Mariners chairman and CEO John Stanton delivered news of the shutdown.

“It kind of felt like a movie, honestly,” said rookie pitcher Justin Dunn. “It hasn’t really felt real.”

Dunn and fellow starter Taijuan Walker were throwing in the bullpen when Servais pulled everyone into the clubhouse.

“Skip walked over and said, ‘Shut it down,’” Dunn said. “We were like, ‘What’s going on?’ You never get told to shut a bullpen down, so we knew it was important. But we were glad to get some information and glad that we’re trying to get things under control and do the right thing for everybody. We’re just hoping to get some more information and keep learning about what’s going on and how we’re going to handle the whole process.”

? Players react to coronavirus, delay of Opening Day

Servais said they’ll try to maintain pitchers’ throwing levels close to where they’re at now -- about 3-4 innings and 60 pitches for the starters -- so they won’t have to start back from scratch when games resume.

But there will be no games for at least a month, and there is no assurance when those games will return. And that uncertainty and the way it all played out led Servais to call Thursday “one of the craziest days I’ve had in baseball.”

Servais compared it to the labor strike that shut down MLB for seven months at the end of 1994 and the spring of ’95 when he was a catcher with the Astros, though he understands this situation stretches far wider.

“It was pretty surreal yesterday,” Servais said. “It was a [strange] day -- not just for baseball, but all over our country with the number of live sporting events shut down. A lot of people are impacted. But that is not the important thing here. The important thing is we do the right thing for everyone in our country and certainly Seattle, where it’s been hit really, really hard.

“You see the number of people struggling and dealing with the situation, health-wise, but also what it's done to the economy," Servais said. "It really affects everybody. Baseball is just a very, very minute part of this.

“We will adjust. We will be back. It just has to be at the right time."