Dave Roberts’ poker face said it all when pressed about the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in California during Tuesday’s Zoom meeting nine days away from the Dodgers home opener.

“Certainly it’s been in our thoughts,” Roberts said when asked about a possible mandate on gatherings in Los Angeles County. “As it stands right now, things have been shut down, but it hasn’t got down to us or affected us.

“So our thought is to kind of continue business as usual and take necessary precautions.”

  *  *  *  

  *  *  *  

On Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a statewide order closing indoor dining, bars, and several other businesses. With a potential lockdown looming over the City of Angels, in the eyes of Roberts, all systems are still ‘go’ for its slated July 23 start.

However, MLB has seen its share of COVID-19 cases, with 24 of its 30 clubs confirmed, including all five California teams. Most recently, Dodgers’ closer Kenley Jansen’s delay in reporting to camp was linked to testing positive for COVID-19.

With a now healthy Jansen, it still raises plenty of questions with the obvious lopsided COVID-19 cases the National League has been dealt.

Could a potential uneven playing field ensue once the season is underway with also having to mandatory quarantine for 14 days with any new positive cases?

“A little bit,” Roberts said. “We’re trying not to make too big of a deal of it, but it’s kind of counting on the county, state-to-state as far as what the expectations are with contact tracing and what you need to do to protect the person you are in contact with and others around.

“But I think that for the County of Los Angeles I think that we are more on the conservative side which I think is a good thing, but also we talked about competitive managed when our guys might be out a little bit longer from other teams, players – certainly.”

Roberts added the most important thing is the health of the players and will make do no matter what the team is up against.

Eager to start the season appeared a bulkier, injury-free Corey Seager, who looked at the quarantine period as an “extended off-season,” taking the time to focus mainly on strength training, which has already seen positive results at the plate during intrasquad games.

“Luck, I guess,” Seager said to what he attributed his Summer Camp success. “You’re always happy to get hits, but now we are here we have a bunch of guys, so we still got to see some live ABs. We weren’t away from it too long from Spring Training. There was probably a month or two, but I’ve had a few extra ABs from everybody else.”

  *  *  *  *  *  *