MLB suspends Spring Training games; start of 2020 regular season to be delayed by at least two weeks due to coronavirus pandemic...

With rumors swirling like Spring Training winds [ed. note - “That’s a truly awful, awful start”], and plenty of speculation taking place on baseball Twitter, the Washington Nationals talked before Thursday’s Grapefruit League game with the New York Yankees in West Palm Beach, FL, about the possibility of the rest of this Spring’s schedule being postponed, and even the start of the regular season potentially being delayed by the ongoing COVID-19/coronavirus pandemic.

With the National Baseball Association (NBA), Major League Soccer (MLS), National Hockey League (NHL) and more postponing games for the time-being, a similar decision by Major League Baseball was expected today, and as Nationals’ skipper Davey Martinez said in his pregame meeting with reporters, his players would continue to get their work in while they waited for an official announcement.

“They know what’s going on,” Martinez said, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman.

“The biggest thing is: Let’s get through today, and then see where it takes us. The last thing you want is to have somebody go out there, and all of a sudden their mind is (elsewhere) and they end up getting hurt. That’s my big concern: They worry about something that right now we don’t control. Let’s control the control-ables, get yourself ready.”

Max Scherzer, who is the Nationals’ player representative, and is one of eight players on the MLB Players’ Association’s executive subcommittee, took a common-sense approach to the topic and the decision that was expected.

“At the end of the day, that’s why the experts are going to make the decision on this ... not players, not managers, not owners, not even MLB,” Scherzer said. “They are going to be listening to the experts and everybody is going to be following what the experts say.”

The Nationals and Yankees got this afternoon’s game in while MLB officials and owners had a conference call to discuss their plans, and the official announcement came just moments ago:

Is this what you expected to see after all those other leagues made the decisions they did? Did you ever imagine the start of the regular season to be delayed? What do you think of MLB’s decision? Is it the right one?