It was a sign of the times – a press conference with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman via Zoom.

…and the news was not all good; yet another sign of the times.

“We have had some people in the organization test positive [for COVID-19], none that has resulted in symptoms that have been problematic, but obviously, this is front of mind for all of us,” Friedman said, to begin the Zoom presser.

As for who those people are, Friedman and Roberts rightfully declined to say.

“It’s very much a personal thing that if any wants to share, then obviously it’s up to them,” said Friedman. “But I think from my standpoint and Doc’s standpoint, we’re not comfortable doing that.

“As we get into the season, if those things are happening, obviously they’re going to have to be handled in a different way, and I just don’t know what that is right now,” he added.

The Dodger executive then said what most of us (unfortunately) already knew.

“I think there’s no question we’re going to have a decent number of positive tests in Spring Training and the season,” Friedman said. “And to me it’s much more about how quick we are to respond to that, the treatment options, the quarantining part of it, making sure it doesn’t spread among the group.

“And to the extent that we can contain it, and we have really good health and safety protocols in place, I think it’s something that collectively as a group, everyone working together, I think it’s something we can manage,” Friedman added. “But here again, I think that anyone that pretends like they can sit here today and tell you exactly how things are going to play out, I don’t subscribe to that, I don’t agree with it. There’s a lot we don’t know. A lot of our conversations internally have just been about staying on our toes, staying nimble, trying to communicate our way through everything, read and react as things pop up. That’s our plan and as we continue to learn more, we’ll get smarter with how we do things”

One of the significant things that we don’t know is if any of the big-names on the Dodgers roster are planning to opt-out of playing during the worst pandemic to hit the planet in over a hundred years. Surprisingly, neither does Dave Roberts.

“I haven’t talked to, as I stand here, collectively I haven’t talked to every player on the roster yet,” Roberts explained. “We plan on getting on a Zoom call with these guys in the next couple days and I get more information individually from these guys.

“But I think that it’s a day-to-day thing, there’s constant conversations,” the Dodger skipper continued. “Things are going to come up, people may be affected more than others. So it’s just conversations that we’ve got to take it day-by-day. Everyone obviously looks at it a little differently.”

What we do know is that Spring Training 2.0 (as it is affectionately being called) will begin on Friday, July 3rd, presumably at Dodger Stadium. However, should the team not be able to work out at their home ballpark, they have a back-up plan in the works – two, in fact.

“We’re finalizing that right now, [but] my full expectation is that we will start at USC and then, at some point when students start eventually arriving on campus, we’ll most likely be going to Rancho [Cucamonga] at that point,” said Friedman. “But we’re still working out those final details.”

Although the overall feel of Thursday’s Zoom press conference was one of cautious optimism, it was quite apparent that both Roberts and Friedman are very concerned about what the near future holds.

Then again, aren’t we all?

Play Ball!

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